It’s illegal to work in the US (and most other countries) if you claim to enter for tourism.

That's an argument to be had but is extremely separate from this one.

Each country has the right and privilege to determine who is allowed in and why. I may or may not like their choices but it's their right to make them.

Most countries (this is empathically not some USA specific weirdness) make a significant distinction between those who want to enter temporarily to see the sights, vs those who want to enter more permanently, perform work, and thus engage themselves with the system more broadly (taxes, accident insurance, healthcare, what have you).

While I personally 1. Think there should be more broad immigration into virtually every country but particularly mine and 2. Think border data searches are unreasonable, I think conflating the two detracts from either argument.