They aren’t victimizing them, they are saying streaming companies are turning into them

Fragmentation is certainly accelerating things. One company tries something like price hikes, ad tiers, password sharing prevention, bundling, etc and sees no consumer pushback, then they all do it.

I don't think the OP is victimizing cable. They are just saying that these companies swooped in with something better that was cheaper to disrupt the industry only to end up rebuilding said shitty industry. Different players, same game.

Stream is still way better than old TV, specifically streaming from your local jellyfin or Plex server ;)

That's the whole point of the post. They're making things shit again, just like cable and taxis.

But were they more worker friendly than the current models? Because the new things are getting just as consumer hostile.

I may be an outlier, but I liked old taxis you order by a phonecall more than drivers juggling five different apps and coming to your place with an according delay for they try to be a delivery guy and a taxist for many companies just to keep a positive balance; cable was great in Russia too, for one Discovery channel alone could completely capture the day of a young teen like me, unlike what it is now. YMMV.

This is absolutely true. But Uber and lime etc also directly undermine useful mass transit. Over the years I’ve found myself in situations where I’ve gone to a place thinking that I will easily be able to get back via Uber, and then found that there are no drivers, or no drivers that want my fare for the return trip. So far after some time I’ve been able to finally find someone, but it’s become more frequent and I’ve been concerned I wouldn’t be able to get home.

A more amusing anecdote: my brother was in a Midwestern small city for a conference. His flight out was at 8am, airport serving the town was about 20mins away by car. He woke up and tried to get an Uber, Lyft. No dice, no one out driving. Tried calling the one remaining cab company, but they didn’t have any drivers out. There was no airport shuttle, or mass transit. Freaking out a bit, he finally spotted one of those electric scooters, and sighing, he signed it out. He was dressed in his conference gear, and had his bag. The city was very hilly, and he found that with the extra weight of the bag, the scooter didn’t have the power to get up hills, so he had to kick push to augment it. An hour later he gets to the airport, soaked in sweat, to see multiple scooters discarded along the road, others had clearly used the same method recently. The cost for the scooter was close to 40 bucks, 2.5 times his Uber fare in from the airport. Anyhow, an isolated incident, but sort of funny depiction of how the transit landscape has degraded a bit over time, and how Uber etc is not as instant and reliable as it sells itself to be.

I always think of these heroes. Their hard work will never go unnoticed

I will never be as big a hero as the uploaders. I humbly thank them by downloading and seeding for months on end. It's small but I do what I can!