You can be sure the state collects a sizeable daily storage fee of the towed car. Then they use that to seize the debtors home, all while raising his property taxes for the common good. This article is just PR spin pretending to be the good guy. More likely they've discovered the guy with a $700 car will never pay their storage fee and they want to maximize their storage space with better paying extortion customers.
Garnish the wages. There is a time for decency in capitalism. Your kid gets sick, your job doesn't have crap for benefits. You get a massive doctor's bill for $1400 to treat your kid. Your car is a piece of crap but you can't afford a new one, so you eat up part of your paycheck keeping it on the road, and keeping a roof over your family.
Take it out of the paycheck in installments. Charge interest. Taking the means to actually make money is just punative and counter productive other than to get quick cash from the sale of the car.
It's why loansharks often make sure that their muscle hurt people but don't make them unable to work. How are they going to pay then?
Unfortunately you are probably right.