The thing everyone needs to ask before advocating for laissez faire is "what does a hostile and monopolistic search engine giant like Google gain from us doing nothing?"
replyAnd then remember that just because Google is not hostile to you today, doesn't mean it won't be tomorrow.
It seems pretty obvious that they are hostile
replyWell, when I said “I’m curious” it was true. I’m actually curious.
replySo how do you think a meta noai tag would be used by a hostile government?
It would be something the website owner set.
Step 1: Be really lax in enforcing compliance with it so that nobody complies with it.
replyStep 2: Abruptly switch to iron-fist enforcement where suddenly people get jail time for violations, but only for entities that have been critical of the government.
This is by no means the only or most likely way, just what I could come up with in 30 seconds. There may be much better "evil government" strategies.