So they don't ask where you are staying and what your visa history is-- but they do make you pay $$, right?
There are plenty of ways to get Australian evisa for free.
This whole ESTA thing seems so stupid to me because we have demonstrated such an inability to use in a useful manner any watchlist that we might have.
Correct. The change means all the non-american false positives have to get visas to go to USA (even if only in transit) in addition to the harrassssment they get while in USA.