Uber's big advantage is that they aren't taxis. They don't pick people up off the side of the road who are holding their hands up, or go in taxi queues at the airport.

There are good reasons for those services to be regulated the way they are; the consumer has much less choice and power.

Uber is in the car service model, where you call someone to come get you. (Taxis have been very big players in this market, so it's confusing, but their displacement here is very real and also very fair.)

Uber has gotten good enough that people very rarely need that first protected-and-regulated market any more.