Eh, while I was pretty upset in the moment, I could get a ride eventually, and it wasn't enough to make me stop using Uber/Lyft, since in the specific scenario where this would always happen (late on Friday/Saturday nights after going out in SF headed back to MTV), I had very few options besides Uber anyway with Caltrain service stopped and no designated driver lined up. And looking at it from the drivers' perspective, you're asking them to miss out on one of the most valuable times of the week by taking them out of the city, often taking them much further from their home (often East Bay or even Sacramento, where drivers sometimes come all the way to SF for the weekend evening rush specifically).

Add into it how easily this could be abused on the passenger side if there was an even bigger incentive, and quick $5 from the app and finding another driver (there were always enough drivers so that even if half of them would pull this trick, I'd find one eventually) wasn't too bad. Much worse would be having to do something more like talking to a rep on the phone or having to go through a lengthy appeals process.