Recovering the bike and thus not promoting theft is also a value.
Maybe, maybe not.
I mean, even if a stolen bike has a working tracker and you're able to trace it to a particular house, do VanMoof's recovery team have the legal authority to bust the door down to reclaim it?
Generally not. According to a newspaper that followed one of the trackers for a day, the tracker offered a choice: "Give me the bike now right now or I call the police, who will see my data, believe me and do have the authority, and I'll meet you at the door if you try to move the bike."
But would the police show up for a measly bike theft? Where I live, they probably would not, even if you caught them red-handed.
Maybe they would for a bike that costs more than 2k?
If you consistently locate stolen bikes, you might have a bigger chance of the police backing you up.
The security guard companies have some sort of arrangement with the police; I've heard that they can call police and have someone show up in a hurry. Why wouldn't Van Moof have the same sort of arrangement in the countries where Van Hoof operates most (well, operated most)?
Certainly fun, but I think there are cheaper theft insurance policies out there.