I've seen literally none of those arguments advanced by any of the transit advocates I follow, and I've only seen the argument for free public transit secondhan

I've seen literally none of those arguments advanced by any of the transit advocates I follow, and I've only seen the argument for free public transit secondhand (i.e., the advocates I follow are discussing the argument and decide against it). Most of the transit advocacy I see is based on the fact that US public transit systems need to, in general, be more rationale, and focus on supporting things like high-frequency all-day travel (and rush-hour-peak-direction-only transit is effectively a farce of transit), or more coherent bus routes or better integration between different systems to alleviate capacity bottlenecks (hi NYC Penn Station). And an awful lot of the-system-is-rotten-and-people-need-to-be-canned (I mean, when you have a front-row seat to the WMATA meltdown, it's hard not to have that sentiment).