Yes, it is unimaginable that the UK has replaced most of their automated car washes with immigrants washing cars manually. I've been back there and I've still family there, it's not that different "on the ground" as it were, despite the big political changes.

It did not, all the automatic washes are there.

I can see the reason why people see it this way though. For £20, you can have 4-5 people getting your car into the best state it can be in under 20 minutes. I would even say it is a joy to watch them work so efficiently.

Most people prefer that over automatic car washes, so after some point, while the automatic washes are there, you become blind to them.

Bear in mind that it's much, much harder to launder money through an automated car wash.

I live in the UK now, have done for 40+ years and there are (still) automated car washes everywhere.