Before you call an enormous group of people ignorant, you might want to run your numbers again.
These kind of analysis all seems to make the same mistake. They use an average, linear depreciation of the value of the vehicle and they continue that depreciation into infinity. But the fact is, the depreciation curve is effectively flat as you get to zero. And the maintenance does not increase into infinity either.
After a vehicle has a few hundred thousand miles on it, the resale value is effectively the scrap value of the metal in it. Putting another 100k miles will not make it negative. And there are only so many parts to replace in a vehicle as far as maintenance goes.
You are correct that running a car into the ground is the way to make money as a taxi service. There's a reason used taxis have like 500,000+ miles on them. However, to drive for Uber, you have to have a car newer than 10 years old
This means, you're going to take the bulk of the depreciation hit on a car. We can debate whether driving ten, 9-year old cars for a year each results in less depreciation than a single new car driven for ten years. But either way, you can't drive a car into the ground using Uber like you can with delivering pizzas or running a taxi service because they specifically prohibit the use of beaters. You have to pay for depreciation.
Depreciation is entirely vehicle dependent, but using the IRS reimbursement guidelines of ~$0.56/mi is quite reasonable when talking about <10yo vehicles.
These kind of analysis all seems to make the same mistake. They use an average, linear depreciation of the value of the vehicle and they continue that depreciation into infinity. But the fact is, the depreciation curve is effectively flat as you get to zero. And the maintenance does not increase into infinity either.
After a vehicle has a few hundred thousand miles on it, the resale value is effectively the scrap value of the metal in it. Putting another 100k miles will not make it negative. And there are only so many parts to replace in a vehicle as far as maintenance goes.