I was recently on the high speed train Zurich to Hamburg. The train was sold out. The cafe car has a standing and order counter, and a cafe seating area on the other side of the galley. Two persons work the cafe, one at the counter and one in the galley and serving the seated diners.

The menu is simple: a selection of cold sandwiches, and items that can be microwaved, like soup, sausages, meatballs, stew, chili, and pasta. Waiter service at the table seating, and drinks and meals served in glass or china. There was a line at the counter and they worked pretty hard and fast to serve as many customers as possible.

You can see the menu here
https://db-bordgastronomie.de/dbgastro/downloads/DB_4060-Speise_und_Getraenkekarte_aktuell.pdf

I rode the first class club service from Florence to Milan recently, and a free meal was offered similar to airline service, at your seat.

Reading the article I think the author had a lot of decisions made before even sitting down to eat.

I guess when my wife and I crossed the country on the Capitol Limited, then the Empire Builder (Penn Station to King Street Station in Seattle) with two friends in 2015, we were experiencing the twilight of decent Amtrak food.
They had decent steaks which I had for every dinner, and my memory isn't too clear but I think I had burgers for the lunches and the breakfast stuff, I alternated (when you're somewhat finicky for food as I am, you're just fine with repetitive eating).
I have nothing but decent memories of the food, but I'm not one of those types who goes on vacation and all I can tell you about the trip is what I ate.
I eat to live, not live to eat. But if the food sucked, I'd surely remember that.

Successfully interpolating the era of the microwaved meal in the dining car is a mission that most museums and tourist railroads should probably not ignore.

Successfully correcting the issues of the era of the microwaved meal in the dining car is a more important mission for museums and tourist railroads to 'probably not ignore'...

But yes, I appreciate the sarcasm. And it is undeniably true that the whole era of 'cheapening' railroad food is a legitimate field for historic preservation... were any of the Biaggini-era automat cars saved?

You can still get a good dining car experience on amtraks western trains - if you are in sleeper or business class. The “traditional” dining car menu.

I just rode the Coast Starlight twice and had good food, good service, and excellent presentation complete with fresh roses on the table!