It really was all the convenience of a car without having to drive it. A designated driver on call. And in cities where finding a cab was hard or next to impossible.
The low cost was subsidized by a combination of VC money and underpaying drivers. The fact that you don’t get free stuff anymore is unfortunate but not all that different than the fate of Movie Pass.
You could always get home from a bar easily, in any weather. If you wanted to explore, and got lost or walked too far, home was only a tap away.
It was such a convenience that after pricing, it was cheaper to Uber to work and anywhere else I drove to than to own a car for me.