I am not sure if you are confused about what the US is attempting to do, or are confused about what other countries are already doing.
For Canada's eTA application (equivalent to the US ESTA), there is no social media field, no fields for 10 years of phone numbers, no fields for family member information, no biometrics collection, no "likeness checks" with photos and geolocation, and it can all be done on a website.
It's Canada, so it's kind of like walking into a club meeting, nobody is going to say anything overt, but iether you figure things out quickly, or as we say, nature takes it's course, unless you have money, and then the process is optimsed with lots of friendlyness
