Your views are colored by the laws you have dealt with, as are mine. Just because that is the law near you doesn't automatically mean that is the ideal way of regulating society. It is just what you are used to.

Obviously, I am arguing from the position of legality where I live, that would seem logical (as the writer of the article). If you live somewhere else and have a different legal environment I'd be very interested to learn about it but I won't adapt my behavior based on that because it simply doesn't apply here.

They're not asking you to change behavior. The claim was that forcing people to pedal is gatekeeping without an actual reason, which is separate from legal arguments, and saying "the reason is the law" is missing the point/circular.

I just twigged from this thread that “moped” is motor+pedal.

Now I’m annoyed that in the UK we use “moped” for Vespa style scooters which have no pedals.

(I was already mildly annoyed that we use “scooter” for Vespa style vehicles which you sit on and are entirely motorised, when it really describes the variant skateboard with handlebars you stand on using one foot and ‘scoot’ along using the other foot for propulsion).

Yes, scooter is heavily overloaded. I had that problem recently when writing a report and realized that there are actually three different classes of vehicle and they're all called scooters.