If buses were a better alternative, people would take the bus. Unfortunately MUNI does not seem willing or able to compete on convenience

I agree with smaller and more expensive. But less flexible? How is a fixed bus route that needs to run on a fixed schedule, reasonably invariant to current demand, more flexible than a car that can take you point-to-point on-demand?

I see this as the future of public transport, where you'd have a combo of smaller and bigger vehicles (including self-driving minibuses and buses) running autonomously, with options to pay more in order to walk less, but only running where people actually need them . Similar to Uber and Lyft Pool before the pandemic, where you could pay less to be picked up on a main street intersection instead of your front door.

Point to point goes where you want, when you want. Buses can be better for taking more people at once, cheap to the riders (if subsidized), but here in SF the service is so erratic it is difficult to use for anything on a schedule, and then with Covid-19 people want more space than mass transit provides

Cities don't have the room for everyone to be driving a single occupancy vehicle point-to-point. There just isn't room.