The bike analogy is pretty funny. Electric bikes are great at increasing accessibility, but have two major downsides I've seen: they damage trails faster than regular bikes and enable untrained riders to get hurt and hurt others much easier.

Back on topic though, I wonder how much can be gleaned from reading reddit (and twitter) about such a narrative-driven topic. At this point, I figure that everyone is either lying, not a person, insane, or trying to sell something. As soon as I stop reading from these platforms and their messages, the narratives they sell cease to exist, and things become much more normal. There was a time when I felt like online discussion was helpful in learning and expanding horizons, but now it feels like it narrows my experience and makes it more myopic.