I think it's at least partly because during the earlier days of covid a lot of people moved back in with their parents, sold off cars, gave up healthcare and cable along with other long term reductions in living expenses. If you are confident you aren't immediately going to starve and go homeless you can handle a lot of smaller day to day expenses with gig work, giving a strong point to negotiate in an entry level forever jobs market.
It would actually work really well as a talking point for lefties. Like you have to have the excessive branding otherwise your brain would just identify all these things as the creation of labor and see no contradictions. It's the profiteer trying to reinsert himself into a relation that only needs to exist between people and the things they create.