There is a difference between regulations and compelled action. The government make your ability to do X conditional on you also doing Y, but it generally can't just make you do Y.

The exceptions are actually quite few outside of conscription, eminent domain sales, wartime powers.

That sounds right to me. The government has tremendous powers. Forcing people to write computer programs isn't one of them. (They could have saved a lot of money on healthcare.gov if they had that power!)