In a low-trust world, it removes a useful excuse for enforcers to kick troublemakers off the line.
A middle ground could be tried (and I think some cities have) where they keep fares and such (and soak the tourists, of course) but then give free passes to all residents in the city.
There’s also the argument, elaborated in that article, that the main reason people (low income or not) don’t take the bus is not that they find the fare expensive but because of the quality of the service, especially frequency.
I take the bus to work maybe 80% of the time from a rural area, I work 9-5 so it works OK, but if I miss the one bus home I am in a world of hurt because I have to wait two hours for the next bus. If the bus ran every ten minutes that would be quite transformative. For instance if you miss the bus or the bus was only 90% reliable it would be no big deal.
People will say that the population is too dispersed in my area and that it couldn’t support more frequent service, but there are several population concentrations on the route and the bus is frequently close to 50% full (when they replace the full size bus with a mini-bus, they sometimes have to leave passengers on the curb). If buses ran more frequently there would certainly be some “induced demand” as more people decide buses will meet their needs.
It’s possible that more people would take transit if the service was more expensive but better quality.
There are places like the Central Valley of California where you can drive a mile and it is all the same farm. There are places like Montana. I'm a mile from a state forest and own about 65 acres, and I'm about 2 miles from the bus stop which is at this (relatively) high density development
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Boiceville+Cottages/@42.38...
there are also two small towns on the route, a subsidized housing project, and route 79 has a stretch of single family houses stacked two deep (roughly every other driveway goes to a house behind the house in front!)
It helps that Tompkins County has one dominant employer (Cornell University) that pays for a bus pass for all faculty, staff and students. Bus service on a triangle between the downtown, Cornell and the mall is absolutely excellent. (15 minutes) If you work 9-5 at Cornell it is easy to get to outlying towns like Dryden, Trumansburg, Groton, Newfield, Danby, etc. There is also bus service to nearby state parks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRi2ACqZHCI there are even songs about it.
Often they stop at the small towns, so really rural people still have to walk to town, but from there they can get "to the big city".
The underlying 'trouble' that makes someone a 'troublemaker' (e.g. aggressive panhandling, disruptive behavior, public drunkenness, etc.) are still reasons to be kicked off public transportation irrespective of how much the fare is.
That said, SCMTD bus drivers are allowed to kick anyone off that is being disruptive or a safety hazard. I have also seen them refuse to allow someone entry due to a pattern of belligerence.
The biggest obstacle at this point is the lack of drivers. With housing more and more unaffordable, many non-tech or non-boutique jobs are getting harder and harder to fill. This leaves unexpected gaps in service that can annoyingly delay your travels.