Caldera

Yawn, yet another ineffective crackdown just for show.

Yeah, sounds a lot like he's working illegally and complaining that he needs to pay bribes for the privilege. Mind-boggling sense of entitlement.

That's a bit rich, considering they aren't even being held in custody and, by all appearances, free to mingle and meddle.

He should have gone for the complete makeover, what some Bangkok hospitals are famous for. They'd have never found him. Tough titties.

Intimate 555

I got my last 7-day "leave the country" stamp in 2009 after doing a border bounce at Mae Sot for a new 15-day (!) entry. 30-day extensions for visa exempt entries must have been introduced at some point later, I'd guess in 2014 or so.

Yes

Can't they just team up with the Chinese government and make it automatic for those who are first-time visitors to Thailand and have a sufficiently high "social credit" score? Then focus on and give more scrutiny to repeat visitors.

You can find a list on this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Thailand