EBITDA strips out financing costs, tax and non-cash accounting charges to leave something close to the cash the operations throw off. That makes it useful for comparing businesses with different debt levels, tax domiciles and asset ages.
The exclusions are also the criticism. Depreciation is a real cost spread over time: a company running fleets, factories or data centres genuinely must replace them, and EBITDA quietly assumes it never has to.
Treat it as a comparison tool, never as profit. The gap between EBITDA and free cash flow is where capital intensity, interest and working capital live, and in capital-heavy industries that gap is the whole story.