Horses for courses
From what I've seen automated fruit picking is done by the simple expedient of vigorously shaking the tree. For heavier fruit though you probably can't afford to let it fall so you have to find a way to hold it. But holding it and twisting it off? Not necessarily. A human has only two arms. A robot can have as many arms (and thus hold as many tools) as it needs. I wouldn't be particularly confident that the human way is the best way in more than a very small number of cases. Except of course that making a tool to do it is the human way.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
