Pai noted that he is a believer in free markets and the rule of law, and he thereby cannot support a government mandate requiring activation of these chips, nor does he believe the FCC has the power to issue such a mandate.
What a moron. He says that radios are essential for public safety, and then implies that the "free market" should be allowed to decide? We don't allow cars on the road which do not pass minimum safety standards. The free market operates within the parameters set by society through their government.
These are people who absolutely do not understand the role of government. They loosely grasp a few basic things, like "no regulations", and pigheadedly follow it even when it makes no sense.
In this case, everybody appears to be in agreement that this feature is vital for public safety and incurs no cost to manufacturers (or minimal cost, to write the software to access the functionality they're already shipping). Why would you even run the risk that an non-professional consumer might buy a device without this important functionality?