[malfist]

Selling stock isn't entirely how you make money from buybacks.

Buybacks inflate the stock price, making what you're holding more valuable, even if you don't sell. More valuable assets are useful for all sorts of things, including leveraging them for other activities, or selling them for capital gains.

[HDThoreaun]

Absolutely can get into all that, buybacks definitely are better for tax purposes, but saying "buybacks are taxed at capital gains rate and dividends are income tax rate" is not correct

[taeric]

For stocks that don't pay dividends, the only way you can make money from them is by selling.

You are right that you can leverage them in all sorts of ways, but that isn't really what anyone means by making money. It is how you drown folks in leveraged debt that they can't pay back later, of course.