A couple points here: Uber/Lyft are 100% better than taxi services in every way. You might get a bad driver, but I've never had a bottle of piss hit me in the feet in a ride share. Also, try not paying cash in a Philadelphia taxi. I've had a wheel fall off a cab while I was in it, zero recourse. Rear ended accident, same. Told to pound sand with the PPA. Anecdata, sure, but about ten years of it.
Taxis still exist, with no benefits, still pulling 60+ hours, as an entrenched monopoly via medallion systems. This is sort of a from of driver share cropping, and is equally if not more exploitative.
If CA wanted to regulate it, they could use the data from ride shares and create limits etc. Instead, they're going to put them to pasture.
As for them operating illegally, it is a better system and more efficient than cab services. Sharing rides alone is a multiplier for gas, and app routing is a better system that taxis refused to implement for the longest time, "getting lost" to pump up fares.
If taxis disappeared tomorrow, I would shed zero tears.
Is uber a good company? No, they are a giant capital fueled destroyer. They went toe to toe with entrenched cabs and made some changes. Maybe that's what it takes in a hypercapitalist society, I don't know.
I used cabs for a decade coming home from an interstate train commute and would never use one again. I'd rather take the bus, and in Philly that's saying something.
Hope we see more innovation in this space, if not Uber or Lyft, something.