Government is trying to make it illegal for one person to keep secrets and whisper them into another's ear.
We can argue all day about how the law doesn't prevent criminals from using technologies (it doesn't, which makes the law idiotic, from a logic perspective), but that's not the important part.
The important part is that this group of folks we're calling Government is trying to prevent us from being allowed to have secrets and whisper to each other.
Government is not as stupid as we'd like to think. Government doesn't believe that "terrorists" will stop using encryption. These laws are not for "terrorists". They're for us. Take away somebody's ability to keep secrets, and you've gained a pretty good advantage over their position[1].
This is about only one thing: leverage; and leverage is power.
We can argue all day about how the law doesn't prevent criminals from using technologies (it doesn't, which makes the law idiotic, from a logic perspective), but that's not the important part.
The important part is that this group of folks we're calling Government is trying to prevent us from being allowed to have secrets and whisper to each other.
Government is not as stupid as we'd like to think. Government doesn't believe that "terrorists" will stop using encryption. These laws are not for "terrorists". They're for us. Take away somebody's ability to keep secrets, and you've gained a pretty good advantage over their position[1].
This is about only one thing: leverage; and leverage is power.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine#Breaking_Enigma