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I think with that sort of equipment, it's to do things like replace a staff member standing over a pot who could be doing something more productive. A workaround to paying for extra labor. Just automate the mindless tasks to get better use out of the staff. The way the French Laundry book has recipes laid out is the order the components can be made before you bring the full thing together. I recently did the scallops with asparagus puree and morels as a course for a dinner guest we had over and it was pretty easy to finish up after prepping the components earlier in the day. Though it was my second or third time making it, so there was a bit of memory and practice involved. Still the recipes have been very coherently presented where I haven't felt overwhelmed even on a first time.

Yeah I was actually talking about The French Laundry Cookbook, not The French Laundry, Per Se. I haven't looked through the Per Se book before. I never come across it used at thrift stores or library book sales for some reason (where French Laundry and Ad Hoc At Home tend to be somewhat common) and wasn't interested enough to download it off libgen, so I'm not sure what the contents really are and how they differ with The French Laundry Cookbook.

For the pickles I'd think you could use a regular suction type vacuum sealer with similar result. I picked one up years ago at an Aldi for $30 or $40 with a big roll of the bag, and it's been pretty good and lasted for a few years with no issue yet. And the footprint is very small. Mine is about 1.5 feet by 7 inches or so. I use it frequently for freezing large quantities of cubed and portioned beef/pork to use for grinding when there's a good deal on roasts. It's pretty good for sous vide too since you mentioned it, but I usually use jars (for weekly yogurt or some custard/dessert type things) or zipper bags. I only really use the vacuum sealer for sous vide if it's something in a flavorful liquid or something that tends to float. But back to the onion pickles. An alternate method you could try is with a whipping siphon and N2O cartridges. Here you'd be pressurizing it instead to similar effect. Just don't use CO2 carts unless you want to carbonate your onions. Though that might actually be pretty cool for some applications like a nice summer salad opposite to some fruits. Overall I find my whipping siphon pretty useful if you're thinking about getting one. Mostly I use it for carbonating doogh which is a drink made from diluted tart yogurt commonly seasoned with mint and salt. A lighter, carbonated version with some ice is really nice in the summer and early fall while a thicker, still version is nice in colder months.

Also I'm assuming you're were talking about beurre manie. If what you're referring to is an uncooked butter-flour clump you throw into a relatively large volume of liquid. There is also beurre monte which is heavily used in The French Laundry Cookbook. Not sure about the Per Se one. It's just butter that slowly melted with some water and constant agitation to prevent it from separating. Though it's not really a thickener, it's used a lot in the book to provide body to various things.