This conversation fascinates me.

I've noticed the same thing working with Swiss Carpenters. Their shops all utilize very nice tools -mortisers, planers, saws, etc. and even special saws are set up to cut out tenons in a single pass (a machine with 5 blades, 1 cuts the overall length, 2 cut the shoulders, and 2 cut the width of the tenon)
And they also all make use of meticulously planed and dimensioned timbers (although they still use layout methods that don't assume wood is perfectly dimensioned)

I don't get the impression that, at least in the regions I deal with, they are driven with this same productivity mindset, however.

I'm honestly drawn to both ends of this endless debate. I love to work with hand tools, but I also love to employ methods that render the final costs low.
But I also have observed that cost isn't the only consideration. Time is an important factor in some situations.

Many larger production shops need to be able to crank out frames in a few weeks time, some shops have the ability to take a couple months to get the job done. For the production company, the overall per job cost may be higher running power tools, but that is offset by the time factor. They make less profit off a job by using expensive tools, but they make up for that by running more jobs through their shop in a year.

I applaud the carpenters who can find the spot in the market that lets them sit back and enjoy the process more, but I understand the businessman who is driven to cut out the 'luxuries' of craftsmanship and the romance of working by hand and put power tools to use.

Me personally, I employ a mixture of the two. Some things I enjoy doing by hand and some things I'd rather not (I'll admit, I'm not too crazy about hand saws, but I love to whack a chisel or swing an axe) I'm also in search of the way that is most cost efficient to me, and therefore to the customer, that means finding the perfect balance between hand and machine processes.

I'm drawn to the economy of machine methods, but I'm also (maybe a bit more strongly) drawn to to simple joy of the traditional processes. I'm the kind of guy that could be happy in either situation (I happen to also like machines)