The difference is that in the former situation, we would all benefit. We wouldn't have to work (or work as hard), and yet we'd still be provided with the basic necessities to live. We could spend our time pursuing personal growth, arts, and relationships with others. (Or video games. Whatever.)
In the real world, though, the only people who benefit from automation are the ones who own the machines. Those who are put out of work are not provided for, and any suggestion that they should be is met with wild, angry resistance. And so now we've become conditioned to the idea that we NEED to have jobs. Not just to feel useful, but in the sense that if we don't have jobs we won't be able to survive, and if you can't survive it's your fault.
Instead of not having to work being the future we'd all dreamed of, not being able to work means we're going to starve in the streets. And that is 100% backward.