I think it’s for locally lost animals and that the only people who regularly check them is animal control and maybe other animal shelters.
No, more and more vets are logging in with this equipment as scan chips become more widespread. I live in a large city and every vet I know of is online with a scanner. They encourage people to bring in found pets for a scan. I’ve done this at least a couple of times (kept one of the kitties for myself.)