Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a double advantage, it ensures the workers tips are 1099-K'd when their venmo hits $600 aggregate and they can't weasel out of the social contract of paying up for muh roads.
This is, as far as I know, only true if you use the business "mode" in venmo. I certainly take in a lot more than $600 in aggregate per year via venmo (passthrough rent), and don't get a 1099-k.
2) In non-business "mode" it's still not your choice if the sender tags it as 'goods or service.'
3) Customers and Workers may be wary to potentially violate ToS by defrauding Venmo and/or the IRS by falsely tagging a transaction that there is an easily electronically auditable record of. Venmo ToS explains your account may be terminated and funds 'held' if you do this, and tons of random people sending you money on a regular schedule is easily identifiable as not 'friends and family.' This is far easier to trace than someone spending putting $200 in singles in a drawer at the end of the night and spending $20 x 10 at the grocery store.
4) Your 'pass-through' rent situation is far less falsely identifiable as goods and services income. 2000x people sending $5 over a year is far more identifiable to a computer than the exact same few people sending you $1k a month or whatever. A very large number (high hundreds to thousands) of nodes sending small amounts over the course of the year easily 'sniffs out' someone providing goods/services and can be bet on to be found out by Venmo compliance sooner or later.