"It's not so different from a lot of other businesses. "

It's quite different and that's the point.

The issues beyond 'apparent value creation are':

1) asymmetries in power between different actors that induces some to make ill advised actions - passing off hidden costs and especially risks

2) externalisations - aka damaging the environment, labour regs (which exist due to 1)

3) misrepresntations in value to end customer - dark patterns, hidden fees, risks not apparent in the transaction.

Entire industries would not work if we had to properly account for a lot of things.

"I know I'm getting ripped off by doordash, but I'm hungry and I'm busy and the harm of getting ri" <- it's not just the 'price' that is high and you're 'willing to pay' - that's fine.

That's definitely not 'rip off' because you're not coerced in any way for that - that's just 'high prices.

The $10 bottle of water at an event <- that is a 'rip off'.

It's all the other things in the system that make it problematic.

Last mile delivery by poor people almost should not exist as a business because it depends on externalizing too many things.

If they provided healthcare, vacation, job security, didn't force people to run around, all that stuff that removes the 'power and information asymmetry' - and then - it still works as a business, fine but it generally wont.

Some businesses are structurally unsound, and people invest in them to take advantage of broken systems (social, regulatory) at the margins. Gambling, day trading. A lot of zero-sum stuff.

Now 'Robot Delivery' - that's an entirely different prospect.

That's an attempt at real value creation. If we got our act together, everything could be delivered by little robots - today - already in 2026. It would reuire a lot of coordination.