So all programming languages at a higher level than ASM are horrible to you? They don't allow you to write everything that pure ASM does. Even C enforces structured programming.
Couldn't a higher upfront price also partly be because Uber tries to predict the travel time and need to add some error margin due to uncertainty? That would probably explain only a small part of it and certainly not why different people seem to get different deals.
You can spend many months working through papers and books without a company paying you for that. That's something that I continually do and have always done, in my own time (and many different fields). Sufficient and not necessary indeed.