A taxi with pre-calculated price, driver and vehicle rating, that actually arrives on time and the driver can't take you around the city with a boosted taxameter to overcharge you. Amazing indeed.
What’s even worse is the ETA they give you before booking the ride. Still better than taxi in general , but that’s a low bar.
I used a "real taxi" a lot in Germany, Poland and CZ before Uber. The best approximate they gave me was "in half an hour" and it usually was more like 45-60 minutes, if it arrived at all. The usual thing to do was to take one passing by, but that got you a terrible smelly car with a ganster driver that overcharged 2x-5x.
Since you mention CZ - the taxi mafia in Prague was especially legendary. Can't thank Uber enough for disrupting that.