Sometimes there is a huge financial incentive to avoid making something unprofitably to steal. For example it has long been technically possible to render stolen phones unusable but this has never been done because there is very little financial incentive to do so, in fact there is financial incentive not to do so because it would effect negatively effect sales of new phones if no phone got stolen.

It would not surprise me at all if something similar was at play here with bicycles. If every bicycle had to be micro-doted (or chipped etc) and registered and bicycles were subject to spot checks, bicycle theft would fall hugely, but where is the incentive?