Honestly, how do you expect Uber to, overnight, suddenly change their entire business model, and interview and choose who to hire on full time? And this is in addition to determining benefits, over time, managing those new employees, etc etc.
There is so much that needs to be changed for this to happen, it would be more shocking if Uber didn't shut down.
Uber has over 22,000 employees [1]. They have HR professionals whose whole job is managing those employees. And they have billions of dollars available to do whatever they need to.
If they wanted to make every driver in California a W-2 employee, I am confident they could do it as quickly as they wanted. And the court wouldn't make them immediately stop. They wouldn't need to shut down. They just need to begin transitioning. Courts are generally reasonable. They'll understand changes take time.
Shutting down is entirely their way of giving the finger to California for making them do something they didn't want to do.
Sure, I'm sure they have some actual contractors who are truly contractors under the law. Maybe some consultants, builders, painters, whatever. But not their drivers.
The correct term for a "side hustle" person is "part-time employee."
I'm confident Uber is capable of doing complex things quickly when it is in Uber's interests to do so.