That's ultimately the argument, in part, and your take to that extent is entirely fair.
That said, while I don't know this couple (the owners), my sense is that they think it will ruin their patio experience and impede the success of their business that they've spent decades building.
I get that.
As with all things, there are trade-offs. That someone loses, so to speak, is not the end of the world, in so far as the community ends up ahead.
But given that this is a Kingsett project, likely a zone and flip, likely not real..............
Yet, the zoning permissions, not the rendering, may live on to benefit a future owner, who will hire KirKor for the design, not AS+GG.....
Its all so murky.