We’re supposed to wash our hands numerous times a day: after waking up, after the bathroom, before bread, before davening, after touching our shoes. I think a lot of Jews were so opposed to the restrictions of Covid because washing hands was one of the biggest rules, and it just made people think they were going to have to bentch all of Covid. Too much hand-washing leads to cracked skin. The hand-washing routine may keep being perpetuated just to keep plenty of Jewish dermatologists in business.
Washing our hands is one of the most common Jewish practices, which is also why it’s one of our most disliked practices. I’ve heard that our frequent hand-washing could be why many fewer Jews were victims of the Black Plague. Though that also sounds like a myth frustrated moms tell their kids to try to get them to go into the shower before Shabbos.
The requirement to wash hands before Hamotzi is to just stop us from eating too much bread. Like maybe they wanted to give us a few more minutes to contemplate how much bread we were having. Jews have no real problem washing at a restaurant because we know it’s going to be a while before the actual meal comes. If you’re spending a few hundred bucks going out to eat, some dinner rolls are going to be sacrificed.