I wonder if this was an unintended consequence, or if the politicians backed by big business really wanted to disrupt the software infrastructure.
If this article is accurate it doesn't sound like it. The change was a political tactic to make the tax bill it was part of comply with Senate budget rules on paper. Apparently this is a common tactic with tax bills, with the expectation that the changes will be repealed or altered in a later bill. There is a movement to repeal this change, but the effects have already been felt.
None of this adds up. You're saying, the legislators were trying to cheat and because it's a "common tactic" that kind of cheating is somehow good, but it's bad when the cheating doesn't go through?
On the other hand, being a common tactic implies that the possibility of it remaining in the books was well understood, and the declared "expectations" carry zero weight as evidence, even less than zero when coming from politicians.
Legislation like that has far reaching consequences and pretend "surprise" just confirms the intent behind it. It's only prudent to assume that we have a common tactic case of throwing sheet at the wall to see for how long it'll stick. If there's no backlash the "tactic" will remain there forever.
As another example of the same common tactic, consider the fact that all popular browsers have been used as Trojan horses into the users' local networks for like forever. At some point back in 2015 somebody objected so the browser makers started talking about fixing the problem but then stopped talking without fixing it because public opinion moved on to other areas affected by abundant sticky materials... Thus, that particular sheet remained on the wall for another 10 years and counting, and the story may repeat itself again.