Could this be a side effect of efficiency? Much more efficient for the investors to push for the ideas that lead to local homeowners showing up to protest than to protest themselves.

Investors don't have a voice locally. They don't write letters to the editor or post on Nextdoor. Pretty much all they have to do is sit back and reap the benefits of angry neighbors doing all the dirty work of preventing homes from being built. It's a pretty sweet gig. They even say this stuff straight up in their SEC filings.