Mexico used their government licensed NSO tools to target the children of activists working to pass a sugar sweetened beverage tax.

https://deibert.citizenlab.ca/2017/02/mexico-nso-group-and-t...

If you look at the list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_Project_(investigation... it seems like most of the countries that used pegasus are still on the allowed list, many of them much more extensively users than mexico was.

I really dont think nso group client is the pattern.

You're right. Main political opposition in India was affected with Pegasus and it is part of this program. I think this has more to do with the level of Apple's presence in a country/jurisdiction and their ability to retrieve the device back in case of misuse.