When I was little and engaged in obligatory outings with my parents (going to the grocery store, running miscellaneous errands, horse shows, etc.) I always brought along my Game Boy Color, the charger, and plenty of games in case things were going to take a while. When I got a little older, I replaced the Game Boy with my Nintendo DS. I barely engaged with my surroundings and focused on the game that was in front of me. My parents didn't see much wrong with this; it kept me quiet and they were able to efficiently do chores while keeping an eye on me. When I would get home, however, I normally wouldn't spend all of my time on those devices. Sure, I would occasionally hop on my PS2 or, in later years, the Wii, but it was always in moderation.
I do not remember my parents even setting gaming ceilings for me when I was little. I just enjoyed being around my parents a lot. They set good examples, talked to me and kept an interest in my life (whatever you can call a life for a nine-year-old), and had good insights to which I enjoyed listening. They are people around which I enjoy being, and that hasn't changed. If anything, in my teenage years I got a little too hooked on Xbox and spent many moons in the basement. I had rough times with my parents when I was 13-16, but I learned on my own that my behavior wasn't justified. I think they raised me properly enough to give me an understanding of what I was doing to them at that age; they were candid with me and tried to explain things in a way that I would understand. It took my edgy, unbearably annoying teen self a few years to grasp, but I did, and that's because of a lifestyle to which they imparted me back in the days where I had my eyes full of Mario Bros. Deluxe while at the grocery store.
I think it would be fair to say that lackluster parents shove devices in front of their kids to shut them up and use them as a crutch, but it seems a little less fair to say that all parents do such a thing. Such a sweeping generalization would require empirical data that 1. you don't have, because 2. it doesn't exist. A Game Boy Color is obviously not the same thing as a much more sophisticated iPad, and perhaps comparing the two is false equivalence, but they generally serve the same purpose. It's just something to do while you're six years old and bored at the grocery store with mom. I think it's pretty fair to wager that because our attention spans are not refined at that age and our much older parents don't have a total grasp on how to communicate with such a small, immature person, most of us had such idle distractions available to us at that age. I think we, largely, turned out okay.
Unless you're following these people home and have an intimate view of their lives about which we don't know, it's fair to assume that neither of us have a proper understanding of how current parents raise their children, since that is an endlessly complicated structure that cannot be summed up in eight words and three images.