Your definition of harassment seems to be one most people wouldn't agree with. There are setting to turn this off. Another solution is to go to a competitor like Apple or Bing Maps.
I'm not sure most readers know but SuperCruise has nothing to do with Cruise Automation. SuperCruise was a GM project long before Cruise was a company or acquired by GM. Different technology and teams all together.
I don't think the US is "too cheap" but there is a perceived higher incentive to get in and stay in in the US than many other countries. Not saying its actually true but that seems like a more rational reason than penny pinching by USCIS.
I'm not sure on the merit of if this person should or should not be allowed into China but this happens to people everyday at US boarder control (especially from non-European countries) who are not even in media but doctors and lawyers. And America proclaims to be much more open than China so this isn't as strange as it seems.
Something that made me think was how the author waffles between being a "journalist" and being a "blogger". Bloggers do this all the time and it's troubling. In cases where important part of a story they wrote turns out to be wrong, or invades someone privacy, they just shrug their shoulders and say "Well, im a blogger, sorry!". When they are not taken seriously, the same people run to the top of the hill to say "But but but we're doing serious work here!" I won't say what Thiel did was right, i'm justing saying I understand.