I think you're right to an extent, but I think ubi could bridge the gap between necessary services and nice to have services. It could let someone who is on food stamps and housing assistance choose to upgrade one of those or for them to buy the technology needed to get their next job. There are pitfalls, but I think ubi could be a good way of allowing people to position themselves to no longer rely so heavily on other assistance programs or live a better life on their own terms if they can't
The general issue I’ve seen is that dismantling programs to pay for UBI just means spreading the butter really thin so that the basic income is a pittance. The US just doesn’t spend so much on social programs to make a UBI meaningful, and if we were going to raise taxes to do so why not just fund more targeted programs?
