There's a sound a whole potato makes when it hits the cutter, and around here we hear it a lot. Every fry that leaves this kitchen started as a real russet that somebody washed, eyeballed, and pushed through the press by hand that same day. It takes longer. We do it anyway.
The reason is simple. A hand-cut fry has skin on the ends, a little weight to it, and edges that aren't all perfectly identical. That's not sloppiness, that's flavor. Those irregular edges crisp up different from the soft middle, so you get crunch and fluff in the same bite. A machine-perfect fry can't do that.
If you ever want to taste the difference at home, soak your cut potatoes in cold water for half an hour before frying. It pulls out surface starch so they brown instead of steam. Fry them once low to cook through, let them rest, then fry them again hot to crisp. That double-fry is the little secret behind a fry that stays crunchy all the way to the bottom of the basket.