In real life you have to make your own food, make your own drinks, use your own plates/glasses/etc. and deal with cleanup.

In ds9 the replicator does everything for you.

But I get your point

Thanks!

This makes much more sense. On my first run through of ds9 and this has been bothering me

Ok so next question. If the computer can magically create anything. And they are on almost all space stations (including cardassian/federation ones) what’s the point of a bar?

Gambling makes sense. Paying for food/drink when you have a replicator doesn’t.