The estimates we have suggests that wage theft by retail employers is greater than retail shrink, so your theory lacks data to back it up.

Setting aside how hard it is to get good estimates of these things, aren't those independent stats?

Finally, we curbed the ability of the most fucked subclass of workers to edge their way towards a livable wage by mildly abusing existing systems of trust. Instead, we can now reduce them to a number and use massive data analyses to squeeze the last penny from every gig worker (or of course just straight up steal, like in the OP).

And they say software isn't a force of good! /s

I agree it’s a good thing. But we should also try to understand why those scum stole in the first place, so we can know how to prevent hiring them in the first place.

Calling them "scum" seems pretty harsh. By value, wage theft is the largest economic act of thievery in the economy - I wouldn't call it strictly ethical, but there's a balance to it.