I'll be the first to admit, some of tipping culture has gone too far. (Tip suplemented wage at a corporate job, asking for a tip at a self serve froyo, etc.) But tips at a small restaurant, or hair salon, etc make sense to me, though I may be biased.
I work at a nice little asian restaurant in the midwest, our wage is $5/hour, however we get tips. Those tips can be up to $160 for a 5-6 hour shift during our tourist months, but during the school year, we're lucky to get more than $50. My boss will give us $50 out of the drawer if we don't make more than that in tips. (So for our 5 hour morning shifts, we are essentially guaranteed $15/hr, 2/3s of which goes home in my pocket that night)
I think this system works really well, I'm guaranteed a liveable wage (I work 15-20hrs a week and can pay my bills). And sometimes I can make much more and be able to buy stuff for my hobbies (if my car stops breaking).
What I'm getting at is tipping culture isn't bad, the wrong people have adopted it. At my restaurant, you don't need to tip us for us to survive. We aren't relying on it, but we do like it, so we improve our service to try to get it.