The headline and the article are completely at odds. SpaceX doesn't appear to have asked for any kind of exemption according to the article. The law was written already exempting any company with fewer than 20k customers within the state. All SpaceX did was report the number of in-state customers they have.
Ignore the headline, then utter the magic incantation "fuck you pcmag for trying to manipulate me for clicks".
Companies will (and have done for decades now) carve up neighborhoods and slowly raise prices as far as they can get away with until they get smacked by regulation (if at all)
Comcast alone is living proof of this
The market is flawed - hence the NYS government is trying to fix the issue that ISPs don't provide a minimum service at a low cost.
NYS is attempting to fix the issues with the market. Companies that don't love their rules can just participate in the regular market. Its pretty simple.