It feels a lot like "We perform illegal searches against pedestrians that look poor, because we know they can't sue to defend their rights." -- impacts only a portion of the public! The law should be the law for everyone, the fact that it applies so some more than others is not generally a virtue. Sure less people hit by an unlawful rule is better, but NO people should be subject to unlawful rules.

More specifically for cryptocurrency there are bad selection effects: Alice and Bob each consider running an exchange. Bob is careful, realizes the law is unclear and departs the space. Alice is a cowboy and rushes in, does a much worse job than Bob would have done.

Worse, Alice may realize that uncomfortable litigation is for sure in her future no matter what she does in the space (except exiting entirely) and so she decides that she should scam big or go home: if she takes in billions from the public on a bunch of baseless hype she can pay a 2% settlement to the SEC to get free of it. ... or she can be conservative, raise a tiny amount and get ruined by any SEC action yet save countless people from a dubious investment.

Unclear rules and unequal enforcement is like taking only half the bottle of antibiotics, it breeds superbugs and still poisons the helpful bacteria.