Oh joey! you don't go to the same places do you? aren't you afraid to eat the food then? Wait staff do remember people who frequent the place and do not tip. I do not condone anyone ever doing anything to food (if it is not a criminal offense it should be and should be prison time not huber) but I have heard of people who do to get back at bad customers. Not so much years ago but I see it in the news every now and again.
Also joey, go to a truly fine upscale steak house and then a local pub, the quality of wait staff is quite different. Some fine dining places wait staff won't even get to wait on a table until they have been there for months in training. Wait staff in some upscale NY restaurants have been at the same place for 20-40 years and can make upwards to 80-100 thousand a year. Yes, it would be quite rare but the quality of service is also quite different than you local corner tap or pub & grub.
The best customers were generally a bunch of guys on an outing like golf or bowling and the beer was flowing. They were jovial and tipped very well. Older women were generally the worst, insisted on separate bills even though there was standing room only and then they argued about pennies and nickels. A certain racial group did not seem to understand or care about tipping either and were highly demanding. Nobody liked waiting on them, not being racist it was just a fact. Got so bad the wait staff had to take turns because we all knew we would be running our butt off for them and they actually cost is money in the long run due to having to declare the 10% tip on their bill which they never left. Sometimes we drew straws to see who had to wait on them or at times the manager had to step in and decide who would be the unlucky wait staff to get them.
If you don't have enough money to tip at a sit down restaurant then you don't have enough money to eat out, go through the drive through or eat at home. Just my 20%.