It's not something that exists only in the US, because it has existed in the EU for more than 10 years (although I'm not sure if all countries are included). All plastic/glass and aluminum packaging is returned in every shopping center, all in order to protect the environment. In the beginning, there was a lot of such packaging everywhere, but today that is no longer the case because everyone wants their money back.
Nothing is forgotten, the faucets still exist, the numbers have changed, and the rewards of 5000 satoshis that were before, are now 5 or 10 satoshis, with the fact that every faucet has at least one short link that you need to pass + captcha + antibot links before you get award. In addition, such an activity only seems to be free, because you are investing your time, which is extremely limited and expensive.
I don't know what kind of crypto mining you are talking about, but it was never free because it always required a device + energy + time, and nothing has changed in that regard until today. Do you want us to somehow shut down all BTC miners and have everyone mine again with their personal computers - or do you think we should somehow tokenize crypto mining since you think every problem can be solved with a token?