Well, the press release did say "That is why Nissan is proud to be at the forefront of developing efficient and reliable in-vehicle connected technologies that are available and accessible to all", no? ;)
Rather unfortunate wording!
That's pretty egregious. No password means you can read the VIN from outside a locked car and retrieve the driving history of the car and control at least the aircon. Wow.
Yeah, the 2 main issues with the VIN are as you say, the targeted vehicle in your presence, or enumerating all vehicles as they're sequential. Not great either way.