Scale. They can’t monetize it in scale otherwise they would. It’s not economically viable either way. Power a camera sure, a cities electrical grid?

You have to make money from something in order for the government to implement it at scale.

I’ve read in another news article that flock themselves began making concessions about how much data they collect and for how long? That’s how you know it’s being used for government surveillance when they have to scale it back themselves in order not to end up under a lens.