I appreciate your perspective and maybe I should emphasize comfort vs. lack of it; but I assume people realize with public transport (and I'm not trying to be a jerk here or disrespectful), that it's public transport; which isn't necessarily comfortable in many places. Of course a taxi will be easier and more comfy. I haven't ever not been able to get a seat on the ARL or the BTS at Phaya Thai, but my experience is probably an n of 3; not enough to generalize.

My bias is that I love the thrill of taking forms of transport I don't have at home (I don't live in a big city) and the novelty of paying so little to do it (maybe 120 baht max for the ARL + BTS). It's also fun and novel to take Grab and Bolt given how much more expensive rides of comparable length are at home. But to really tweak that out, since taxis are anything but exotic to me, I now enjoy zipping around Bangkok in Grab and Bolt motorbikes when I don't have more than a day pack.

I'm also usually traveling on leisure, not business, and I'm on a budget, (no per diem). All costs come out of my pocket and not an employer's. If an employer was willing to eat all my taxi costs, I'd always take taxis. Maybe. Except in cases where it's a lot quicker to take public transport from the airport than a taxi, like during rush hour.