People do steal stuff, but that stuff isn't usually a data collection device which is clearly tied to an specific individual. For every phone that exists, Apple, Google, and/or the wireless carriers have extensive and detailed records of who owned the device and when, along with multiple measures of where that phone was at any given time, who was using it, and what it was being used for.

If my phone is stolen, these companies continue to know exactly where it is and who has it and what they are doing with it at all times. I should be able to call the police and have them track down my device and retrieve it for me.

There's the potential that someone could try to scam this system by selling a phone second hand and then pretending the sale never happened, but of course our purchases and financial records are typically being tracked at all times as well, and there are countless records of nearly every interaction we have with other people, and receipts are also a thing. The risks of scams in a "phone theft mostly isn't a thing" world would have to be measured against the scams and thefts we have today in our current "All your data is constantly collected and endlessly stored, but never used to benefit you" world.