In retrospect what they argued would happen, whether one considers it good or bad, did come true. Machines allowed unskilled laborers to produce more, and for capitalist owners of the means-of-production to steal a greater portion of the fruit-of-the-labor. This then undercut skilled labor, rendering them equivalent to unskilled labor almost overnight, and it furthermore resulted in a poorer quality of product. The Luddite protests were an early union action by organized tradespeople.

It’s hard to not use it with the meaning of technological-regressive, for me too, but it does work to erase the class struggle context behind the movement. All war is class war, right?