I think the problem is more that they don't want to have to do those things on every single wheel, the microchips make identification easier. Also worth noting that many things can be physically and/or chemically identical but still have different value due to the way it was produced, some things that come to mind are power and hydrogen. They can both be produced in many ways, with some in more environmentally friendly ways than others, and the consumer may care about that.

Not necessarily. The insane level of protection applied by the original is the motivation to produce such good copies. Otherwise the copies would be just a generic "hard cheese".

DOP/AOP regulations imo produce more benefit than harm, even by motivating copycats