It's also possible that these companies are taking the loss to gain market penetration, hoping to find a solution to the vandalism problem before the VC money dries up.
They've disclosed that an average scooter does 5.5 trips/day ($5.50), assuming everyone rides at max speed nonstop, that still ~$14.50/day. Pays for itself in under 2 months.
Bird probably manages to get a further $25-30 off that, so perhaps as low as $120 per scooter, plus perhaps $10 for the bird brain modification and shipping by container, another $10-15.
So theoretically, a scooter could pay for itself in 10-20 days if used that heavily. I'd say that they are very capable of absorbing the cost of the occasional one going missing
I think a lot of people are being quite optimistic about the economics of these. That said I really hope they are successful. Anything to reduce car traffic.