alt Hacker Newsyou answered your own implicit question. You have a choice who you sell your work to, you don't have a choice what your taxes do. Seems pretty straight forward why the former elicits more push back. The government forces you to pay taxes it doesn't force you to build them tools of surveillance or weapons.
IF the feds are a sufficiently large market your viability as a business might depend on keeping them happy.
btw i am not making a judgement call on the ai usage issue itself, just saying that this and taxes are more equivalent than it might seem