> Scooters would be a great solution for the last mile in the suburbs where you have to walk 1.5km from the subway to home
Absolutely, but that is contradictory to those companies' business model. They try to maximize use, a single commuter taking the scooter from their home to the train/subway station 2 times a day is very little use. Owning or long term renting makes more sense for that use case, and there's little a startup could bring there.
This is where they are not.
Instead, scooters are in the ultra dense city center where you anyway have the choice between: bus, metro, light-rail, bikes and other modes of transport.
This is where everyone hates them.
This is the situation in Germany at least.