I'm in a high coverage low density area, where MVNOs excel, and I frequently get people thanking me for recommending they switch.

Complete speculation, but I'd hazard a guess that they were able to offer such cheap service during the era of near zero interest rates coupled with their masterful use of celebrity to market their service made them an user acquisition machine and that T-Mobile is now paying a mint (no pun intended) to acquire all those users.

> Maybe I just have a soft spot since he's Canadian

Given that Mint isn't available in Canada, I presume that you must be in the US.

OP said consumers not themselves specifically. OP could very well be Canadian and see that a fellow Canadian has provided a valuable service for American consumers even if they themselves aren't able to take advantage of that service.

Exactly! I'm a Canadian living in New York. Reynolds & Gosling are two Ryans we hold pretty dear to our hearts, though they're both are so world famous folks often guess them to be American.