As an outsider, it will be interesting to see a pilot at minimum. I'd be hesitant for NYC if it rolled out massively expensive stores across the entire city without understanding if it succeeds at the small scale. I'm not sure why this succeeding or failing has to be viewed as a violation of a sacred value.
Governments should do more experiments, and this does seem to have been thought out enough to not be a total waste of money.
I believe it's simple tribal behavior, combined with American blindness to a "free market". They'd rather be correct and put everything in a good / bad bucket instead of experimenting and learning from the experience.
Governments should do more experiments, and this does seem to have been thought out enough to not be a total waste of money.