> Isn't this the same question as, "why should we allow general purpose computing?"

I don’t think so? It’s not illegal to call random people on your phone, but if you do it millions of times per day with a computer it can be illegal.

It seems to me that harassment is similarly offensive regardless of the degree of automation.

...and it's not obvious that transmitting bytes (within frequency and bandwidth protocols) is ever justly criminal; they are trivial to ignore.