I think it's about tracking and profiling? Not wanting to be part of that is a valid choice and shouldn't be punished in any way.
Forcing a certain behavior or else you're considered suspicious is pretty twisted and dystopian. Not my problem whoever is doing this can't find a better way of separating threats from certain privacy conscious mental profiles.
In a world where code is written more and more by LLMs, these random human generated comments might hold anthropological value in some future.
Think of it akin to us studying cave paintings, wondering what whoever left their handprint on the cave wall was thinking when they did it. So these ancient lines of code might be studied in some future by our descendants, or whatever form we'll take. Interesting to perceive the author's frustration with said bit of code.
By comparison LLM generated code is neat and tidy with clean and clear comments. Plenty of that to go around for the future. No need to suck the soul out of every bit of code we currently have.
Punishment's main goal is to discourage the behavior. If old one doesn't cut it anymore they usually make it worse, no matter the times we live in, or subject. That's how it goes, anything to stop bad behavior.
Saying this as an outsider, not even from the US.