Of course it is ridiculous. Especially when they have cars patrolling with facial recognition technology etc. The entire 90-day reporting was only enforced as more nationalistic govts came to power in the early 00's, and was kept in place because they are, as you quite rightly state, unable to change.
The entire visa system needs overhauled but there is not the will nor the ability to do so unfortunately, so we are where we are.