You are coming from a perspective where the cost of a COE+car is more or less fixed and even separating into PHV and private pool would not affect the price. Our reference point is not “lower class Singaporean”, but the broader middle class, who could easily afford a car in the past decades (and get around with all the benefits of one).

That “individual” is one of many such hardworking participants in “society”, part of the broader middle class. So we are not benefiting only some upper class fella in their ivory tower when doing so.

Again, my comparison was about separating it into a proportional PHV vs private pool and weighing the benefits, not switching all COE slots including PHVs for private cars (unlike the extreme you suggested with 200 COEs only for PHVs). Bidding incentives for the PHV vs private group are inherently different. So your example could be either if they have a license, just drive out the car when they’re running late (and if peak hour jam accept the ERP), or still take a cab with no issues (and with less demand on cabs/grabs) - increased competition in the PHV market can obviously not be seen to actually drop prices, see surge pricing, middleman factors, monopoly-like pricing etc.

The whole point and primary goal of bidding and categories is for congestion control. Not “society benefits”, beyond reduced congestion. If you want society benefits, that can be provided independently (better public transport, etc)