It’s not about skipping the exercise, but increasing range vs effort. It might cut your commute by 30%, allow you to live further away, or enable that scenic ride to the next town over, without requiring you to cultivate potato-shaped lower legs.
Scooters are heavier, more expensive, only work on battery power, and sometimes are not allowed in cycle lanes (IMO they never should be).
> sometimes are not allowed in cycle lanes (IMO they never should be).
This relates to my largest pet peeve about ebikes right now -- people using them on the bike paths. They're not allowed there, and for good reason, and their presence is causing accidents.
To be fair, it's not the ebikes as much as it's the people behaving badly. It's entirely possible to use an ebike on a bike path without being a hazard (don't use the power assist, warn people when you're passing others, and other basic bike path courtesies) -- but very few people do.
Scooters are heavier, more expensive, only work on battery power, and sometimes are not allowed in cycle lanes (IMO they never should be).