They don't need to make justifications for automating work, they're just going to do it. It was happening long before covid and the anti-work sentiment came around, and nobody cared about explaining why, they just assumed it was an inevitability.

As far as these articles go, I would say that it's more a case of brainwashed people genuine trying to come up with a reason for why this stuff is happening other than the obvious anti-capitalist conclusion. Not so much a deliberate hit piece to help explain companies' decisions to automate, but rather a liberal brainwormed attempt to rationalize it after the fact.