The hotel experience of course was (and is) not universally bad, but I still prefer an Airbnb in most cases, for most trips I take. And when it comes to taxis... no thanks. Unless I have foreknowledge that taxis are significantly cheaper than Uber/Lyft in a place I'm visiting, I will take that Uber/Lyft every single time.
Airbnb is certainly more fraught, given the problems for communities that rampant short-term rentals can cause. And I won't claim that Uber/Lyft is fair to their drivers. But I don't really care if they had to break laws to get where they are. Sometimes laws are wrong. Sometimes laws are the result of corruption and lobbying that isn't in the interests of the actual constituents. "Social expectations" is a bit of a weird thing to bring up, since it's so amorphous and hard to pin down. I don't think I ever had any "social expectation" that people can't rent out their house or apartment for a few days or a week. I don't think I ever had any "social expectation" that the only way to hire a car was to call a number that often doesn't pick up, and then wait 30-60 minutes for a car that often doesn't ever arrive.
"Technology and throw-caution-to-the-wind made life better for me as a consumer, and I openly don't care (much) about the negative impacts on communities and other individuals".
> Sometimes laws are wrong. Sometimes laws are the result of corruption and lobbying that isn't in the interests of the actual constituents.
Certainly. That's why we have a process to change them, rather than simply ignore them.