Yes, public transit in NYC is great. I think it’s nuts to visit NYC without at least trying the subway, and public transit is generally the best way to get around for most people.
But for first time visitors who want to see the major tourist sites and may only spend a few days in the city in their entire lives, the tourist buses still make a ton of sense. They’re crazy expensive (like $60-100 per person for just one day) but the routes are designed to cover most of the major tourist sites that visitors want to see so you don’t have to plan the route yourself, there are guides on the buses who narrate as you go so you know what you’re seeing, and the buses are physically designed to make it easy to see things as you travel around the city (you can’t see anything from a subway tunnel).
