Ok, you can fault Uber for TONs of things. Moral, financial, ethical, political, legal, but one thing they did indeed do is provide "actual productivity improvements that make lives better".
I am an Uber/Lyft user and my life has been drastically improved!
Speak for yourself. Uber has for me been a service superior to what taxi companies offer in literally every way possible.
Of course they are, they have less overheads because they game the system.