What man? Move out of a rural area to play a game? Isn’t it in Niantic’s best interest to make the game fun for all people to play, regardless of where you live? They want MORE people to play the game, and this would surely help that.

Sure, all of this is true. I think you hit on exactly why this is a dumb move by Niantic though. Lack of tracking of any kind is only going to make the game less fun to play in rural and suburban areas that already are sparse in pokemon and pokestops.