I want to build an ADU on my Mountain View property but was denied because the permitting department in anti-ADU and will obstruct any way they can, despite the rule changes. Yet others have gone ahead and built an ADU on their property anyway, under similar circumstances, ignoring the permitting department.

Morally speaking, did these people injure me? Did they slap me in the face? Are they wrong? They increased the housing supply during a shortage, but at the cost of ignoring the law.

Oh, I don't know about morality, didn't realize we are discussing it here. All I know is that you have 2 options: either ignore the law but make sure you are ready to face the consequences, or don't ignore the law. I don't think there is a 3rd option where you knowingly ignore the law and then cry about being punished for doing it.

Your sentiment has merit, but it reminds me of the bit in Huckleberry Finn (I think?) where a traveling scam show comes to town. Every night, a crowd arrives, pays entrance, and is treated only to the scammers persuading them to keep quiet about it, so that the next night's crowd gets taken for suckers too. And of course, misery loves company, so the people do just that.

As a practical matter, how would the city know unless neighbors report the construction activity? The question then is, can the city be trusted to maintain the anonymity of the reporter.

Anyone have direct experience on this?

Yes, I do. I've built software to detect such changes as soon as possibly by analysing flyover data. In our case stereo imaging to also get height information. Only big cities do that. In small cities people talk and word gets out. The only problem is to detect moving parts (trucks), temp. parts (parked vehicles, containers) and seperate trees from buildings. Most of the flagging was done manually.

People just need to pain everything with this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack

All features become invisible, black as could be.

Superblack spray paint is very expensive (eg on a roof of an illegal building) and the image would make it clear that something is hidden there and immediately flagged for manual inspection.

Clouds also don't help as the city only does flyovers on bright summerdays without any clouds. Google maps adds a lot of articial clouds, but that's probably from their gov. sources to hide something sensitive.