There is just so much potential money to be made off these things, building, selling, repairing, regulating, licensing, and insuring them. Everyone benefits, except for traditional cyclists like us. We deal with the social fallout of being associated with drunk college kids (or adults) driving them around recklessly.
The social compact, at one time, was "use your own power to propel yourself, and we will cut you some slack on licensing and regulations". Those days might be coming to an end soon.