"Eerily similar" only in that I, like most other people, do not have to worry about being arrested, yes.
There is no one size fits all security best practices, you should analyze how much you are at risk before deciding what safe practices would be useful.
I’m sure are right about the numbers, most people won’t go to a protest. But I very much want to live in a country where people can peacefully protest without fear of having their digital lives completely by the government.
And a protest is just one example situation of how this can be abused to trample on privacy rights.