E-bikes are crutches for the weak. If you truly cannot ride a bicycle then by all means buy one. But here in California I'm constantly pestered by 12 year olds riding 200lb "e-bikes" at 30mph down the bike path. We had to lobby hard to get our safe zones and they're being turned into freeways by bloody e-bikes. There's a whole generation who think they're getting exercise by twisting their wrists and zooming along.
I disagree in terms of e-bikes per se. I concur that the version's able to do 30mph, especially unassisted, are electric scooters and should be treated as such but in Europe, unmodified e-bikes with 15.5mph limits are great and absolutely do give a good workout.
I speak as someone with extensive road and MTB racing experience. To qualify, I won all my MTB races last year, I have nearly 400 Strava KOM's all acquired as a chap in his 50's and did pretty well in my younger days too...so not exactly 'weak'
I used an eMTB in 2019 for a few months to recover slowly from a knee injury and thoroughly enjoyed it. With variable assist, I could get a workout equal to my usual training regime on my unassisted MTB. This is a fact.
I know several people who wouldn't be riding but now spend upwards of 12 hrs a week on ebikes and are noticeably healthier for it.