I do not want to defend the gig apps but there is a major benefit, you can make your own schedule and (mostly) work in the geography that you want. That flexibility is extremely valuable to some people.
Sadly that’s the best option for some people. And it’s worth remembering that the hours many minimum wage jobs give are irregular in quantity with very little consistency of schedule.
We should definitely have robust protections for gig workers but we don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water.
Thing is, the model could have been built with employees, even lowly paid ones, but then it would have been pretty transparent that they were subsidizing the rates to take market share from licensed taxis. The indirection is a feature, not a bug. Have we learned anything? Probably not.