One does not have to be in favor of non-competes to dislike legislators removing or curtailing a civil right like the freedom of contract.
1) negotiated noncompete 2) noncompete is a given 3) noncompete forbidden
We now have (2). In theory (1) would be better. (3) is bad for the same reasons that (2) is. But more people benefit from (3), so this legislation could be an improvement.
Re. (1), if a company had to pay me to not compete in the future, I wonder what it would really be worth to them? I bet it's worth more to the individual.
Many years ago I saw the managers at a former employer prevent an ex-employee from taking a new job based on one of these agreements. They were not really concerned about the competition. They wanted to teach him, and the rest of us, a lesson.