Sure, but there is principle involved here which makes it worth the time invested.
The driver who stole the backpack full of gear should not be in a position of trust with other people's belongings. Following the thread to make yourself whole and also hopefully to have some repercussion for the thief is worth while.
IANAL, but he should have revised his damages for the second case to account for his expenses, including time. He probably could have won closer to $6000 without a problem.
The author comes off as deeply uninformed about how legal proceedings in the U.S. work, for example talking about how he had to refute arguments in court and such, which is just not how things work at all at that level. Some basic Googleing would have taught him all he needed to know about defending himself in small claims court without stress.
You can't usually get your own time costs back. Even suing for real actual legal fees (that you can document, such as payments to lawyers) is tricky and usually demands that an existing contract is in place to enforce this, or that the suit is frivolous, and a judge has to rule on the frivolity.
You can't just go to small claims court and say "I make $50/hr, and I've spent 20 hours on this, so I also demand an extra $1000"
Sure, but you can't always optimize your life for 100% operational productivity/efficiency.
Sometimes it really is the principle of the thing. Also it's good to have this data point out there for people to see how Uber operates behind the scenes.
You could probably have designed an app, coded a site, or written a small novel with that time.