I don't represent the FAA and the office doing this is a different branch than mine, but my guess is this isn't so much to regulate, stop malicious operators or punish violators (which is secondary), but to have a way to educate probably the vast majority who have no idea about how our airspace is used and might innocently think there isn't a problem flying at 1,000 feet in a park a few miles from a busy airport. I think this is really about getting contact information so they can send out educational emails.

This explosion of new "drones" is a big unknown and I think they're just acting out of caution until the effects and actual dangers are found out over time. Birds are equally as dangerous and obviously unregulated, but we know their behaviors. Once we've seen the effects of these hobby drones on our airspace, I'm sure the FAA will let up if it's not a problem (like R/C planes and model rockets turned out not to be).

Remember we government workers don't like regulation any more than you, because it means more work for us but the same pay.