Yup. This falls under the idea of “optics”. Often HN tends to dismiss it in favor of logics “well, the problem is actually quite small”. What matters is the perception of the problem.

Just like with The Silk Road. Once it became large enough and Ross started to taunt the authorities to find him, the police had no choice. It’s continuing existence chipped away the legitimacy of the authorities, they had to shut it down just to maintain appearances.

Just like this ransom ware. Keep it small, it’s not worth going after. Start screwing with the economy and the govt goes from 0 to 10 very quickly.