I drive for Uber & Lyft and don't have any complaints about the basic proposition I've accepted. I don't feel in the slightest bit exploited. I do on a part-time basis and average $20+/hr in my market. I have a cheap, reliable car that gets good gas mileage and since it will eventually become my son's car, I don't care about depreciation. (I don't quite understand the people who don't put in at least some effort to optimize their expenses, but that's on them.)

That many drivers try to make ride share their full-time gigs is not persuasive to me that we should be classified as employees. They are trying to make it something it's not. To put it bluntly, I WANT to be an independent contractor because otherwise that would enable the companies to put restrictions on me I would strongly prefer not having to deal with. The biggest would almost certainly be "no compete" clauses, i.e. having to choose to work for one company over the other(s). But other things I could easily see them doing is mandating shifts and penalizing you for not accepting rides.

I don't think my opinion is particularly unique.