“Hustle culture types” is simply a little anecdote about the types that would look you in the eye and tell you they are entitled to disregard what I said above. They’ll usually wrap it in some altruistic bs to justify as well.
ToS is nice but you can't expect that it applies - the user (of the machine doing the scraping) might be a child which makes the potential contract automatically void, for example. Also, there are people under jurisdictions where such things have no power, or that don't recognize your rights to the data.
And the whole thing of putting data out publicly and then just expecting machines to see the pile of data and go "oh so where do I sign the ToS?" is weird...
Just put it behind a rate limited API key...
There is a well-understood social contract here. I should not drive my car along the path, even if don't crush the flowers. I shouldn't walk on the flower beds, even if that sign isn't legally enforceable. And if a runaway lawnmower, RC car, or some other machine of mine does end up in the garden, I am responsible, because it was my machine.
With websites, there is even a TOS specifically for scrapers - robots.txt. The fact that it is easy to bypass or ignore is no excuse for actually bypassing or ignoring it.
The anonymity of the Internet functions as a ring of Gyges, where since people don't face consequences (even social ones), they feel entitled to do as they will. However, just because you can do something does not mean you have a right to do something.
Now let's say a photographer visits the flower garden, takes images, and sells them online as post cards? As long as the photographer is not hindering other people (flooding the site with repeat requests, in the analogy), it doesn't seem to be a problem.
On the other hand, let's say we don't have a flower garden, we have an art gallery or a street artist's display - or the pages of a recently published book. Now the issue is distributing copyrighted material without paying the creator... but what if there's a broad social consensus that copyright is out of control and should have been radically shortened decades ago?
The vast majority of data being scraped is not copyrightable creative work, however, so as long as you're not obnoxiously hammering a site, scraping seems perfectly ethical.
And again - there are countries where any ToS without explicit signature or other kind of legal agreement don't apply at all.
Just like writing "by using the toilet you agree to transfer your soul for infinity" on a piece of toilet paper taped somewhere in the vicinity of a toilet gives you nothing - even if it was a more reasonable contract, nobody agreed to anything.
As for your other point, I think this is more like standing next to a highway with a sign that reads "don't drive cars here" and expecting people to stop and turn around. They didn't even see your sign at their speed and it's kinda unreasonable to expect they would be checking for that kind of a sign on a highway. At least make it properly - big, red, reflective (e.g. a Connection Reset, or at least 403 Forbidden).
Our gardener should not need to build a brick wall around their public garden to keep your lawnmower out.
If I choose to make my data available to some businesses to make discovery of it easier, and I choose to decline to allow others to unilaterally copy my data to develop a different business, that's my right. And it is unethical and unreasonable for any other person to assume otherwise that they are entitled to the same rights I granted someone else.
If I own some data, I get to the be arbitrator of the who/what/when/where on the use of the data. Period.
There are many kinds of data that can't be owned at all. Actually it's the other way around - there is a very small subset of data that can be owned. You can try to cover it under some kind of a non-disclosure clause in a contract, but again - a contract would have to exist.
Because intellectual property doesn't exist.
What if you got that data from me/users and I/we claim the same rights (like GDPR for example)? Will you still honour ownership as above?