The benefit is, that people who need taxis, get taxis. Old people or sick people.
I have not seen any uber in smaller cities.
Uber goes were the market is 'cake'
Again: if you tried to get a taxi prior to Uber existing, it was a nightmare and not at all reliable. You called the taxi company and if they felt like sending someone, they would. Often they'd say, "Sure, we'll send someone in 2 hours," and the driver never showed up. More than once I was stranded somewhere because of an unreliable taxi company.
This experience doesn't exist anymore, because Uber/Lyft/ridesharing apps out competed useless taxi companies.
People who needed to get taxis certainly didn't always get taxis.
I'm not sure where you made this experience though.
But at least here most cities i'm aware of, do not offer uber. But Taxis.
Big cities sure they have uber.
I also agree though, i don't like that uber is disrupting existing markets just because but taxis are shitty. Still i haven't seen an uber doing dialisis drive in my hometown, its taxis not ubers.
The whole concept of taxi medallions is also extreme market manipulation with basically no benefit to the average consumer, which makes it doubly odd that someone would consider them somehow more ethical or less manipulative.