Saying goodbye to...
the pour over will be a difficult pill to swallow for some. If you were to tell me a year ago I would be advocating for the demise of the pour over in cafes I'd think you were crazy. Yet, I think as time goes on it will fade into the specialty coffee past like the single shot of espresso. Of course at home the pour over (my preference being a V60) reigns supreme in the drip game. In a cafe setting though, it's time for us to say goodbye to the pour over and hello to the modern, dialed in batch brewer.
The biggest reason I see for the end of the pour over is lack of consistency. They vary so greatly based on who makes it, how they make, and which methods they prefer. Even those who are trained to do it one specific way will likely take some liberties in the making of that coffee. When you use a modern brewer (i.e. Curtis, Fetco, etc.) the technology is repeatable and consistent. They have shower heads that disperse water (similar to a Melodrip) and can also do pulses of water (similar to a lot of pour over recipes).
The other main reason for their imminent retirement (at least on a relatively large scale) is the amount of time needed to produce a cup of coffee. In this time a barista, who would ideally devote the entire five minutes to weighing, grinding, and pouring, could be freed up to do other things. Put yourself in the shoes of the business owner and the customer. Not only will the lines move faster and wait times decrease. But a cup of coffee will be less expensive to make on the owners side, but less expensive to purchase from the guest side. It's a win all around.