> I think they need to be a last-resort when everything else has been tried.
Problem is you can always always cry that not everything has been tried and perpetually put off regulation until we try this or that or this again (it might work because things are slightly different now). It's also easy to argue that existing regulations were put in place by morons who had no reason to regulate anything, and ignore all the history and precedent how civilians, businesses and even government entities can't be trusted to operate above board without a gun to their head.
Even if you're naive enough you can see the utopia with limited regulation where everyone acts responsibly and for the greatest goof, plenty of people don't really want to be subjected to the reality of that perpetual experiment. We've had generations, centuries even where people had an opportunity to do the right thing sans regulation and the minute it costs more than $0 those ideals go out the window, if they ever existed.
And certainly seems like some of the nicest places to live are fairly heavily regulated in many aspects. And places that have very little regulation tend to be hellholes of pollution and varying degrees of human suffering and environmental damage.
So where is utopia of meager regulation that can be used as a shining example?