One thing I like about Stellaris is that your robots can attain sapience but all you have to do to prevent a robot rebellion is say "Okay all robots are citizens now"
That's the path I always go in my preferred playstyle (mechanist, egalitarian materialist). Exploit the robots, then free the robots, then become the robots (synthetic ascension). Build up economy until I can put everyone on the Utopian Abundance living standard. Build paradise of immortal commiebots.
Really, Utopian Abundance is great in general: unemployed pops don't lose happiness or living standards, and they generate small amounts of unity and research, but they'll still take jobs if they're able. I like the implication that people want productive and meaningful work, and will find worthwhile ways to occupy their time even if they can't get full-time employment as long as they're given the means to support themselves.