But how is it any different from any other foreigner who would want to get a residency visa, to go beyond the Schengen 90-day limit?
They'd be spending money too. Unless there was some data showing that digital nomads spent x % more than typical visa holders, not sure why that would be an advantage to these countries.
Of course they wouldn't compete in the local labor market, because they have been vetted for having jobs and enough income, probably their own health insurance too.
But I thought every residency visa applicant had to meet these requirements.
If the “digital nomad” were subject to the traditional income tax rules applicable to “typical residency visa applicant”, the attraction of shifting to the locality — especially when it’s a relatively high-tax locality — wouldn’t be the same.
For the “digital nomad” host country, they import a local spender who probably isn’t taking jobs away from locals and is instead spending more than average locals on supporting local jobs during the period of relevance.