What really sets me off is how much "moral" crusading they do (eg- vs. Google) compared to how much shady stuff they do. This is just latest in a long line of crummy behavior that keeps coming up over and over again.
It's hypocritical and wrong but pretty understandable at the same time.
This is a systemic issue.
I've never needed it because every restaurant that I go to is on Google or maintains their own website. It's been known for years now that the reviews on Yelp are largely fake and they hide legit ones, so it's nearly useless for that as well. At least with Google Maps reviews, I can click on the reviewer and see the other places they've been.
But your question is fair. I often ask it myself as I'm exiting the site.
Do you have a source for this?
This is a decent post, as it lists the outcome of a long-standing lawsuit (Yelp won) but also links out to several other lawsuits filed over the years about fake reviews on the site.
https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2020/03/yelp-finally-d...
They also didn't get booted from search -- they're still always capturing/clogging the top results. Google added all their own cruft at the top, but the search results haven't changed.