Either way, it’s a very common tactic, and undoubtedly part of the motivation.
Better to control the narrative than just wait.
That's... wishful thinking. Such a reckoning will certainly not come under Trump, I agree; but it's not a given that it will happen under Biden. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that it will not, at least for the first 4 years.
To my knowledge, the US has never used unemployment to provide benefits to non-employees. UI is an insurance based program and always has been -- the business model is to loan money to the state programs during an uptick, which then gets recovered through UI premiums.
Chances are, changes are coming that will erode the free ride that "employers" of Uber have been enjoying. The states are broke and facing big increases of UI premiums. Once the door opens, it's hard to close. People will start looking at things and asking awkward questions about things like Medicaid and SNAP expenses associated with gig workers, etc.
It is among the many issues that are the contributing causes of why residential broadband sucks in many parts of the USA, and why consumers are dissatisfied.
You can make it difficult for everyone at the "national" level of operation, but then how does a smaller company ever get there from a "local" start?
What even constitutes a "small business" when it comes to gig economy? Most of the workers don't even count as employees.
There's going to have to be a -lot- of legal changes to constitute something worth while. And legal stuff moves slow on purpose (so that it doesn't bork things before they're understood... and also, it's just slow).