I believe they would sincerely welcome governments stepping in.
Exactly—that’s the feeling even from merely reading between the lines on their public statements. They are begging politicians to please step in already and start regulating the hell out of them. To my knowledge, no other industry has ever done that. Industries are supposed to try and fight off regulation, not implore it.
Superhuman capabilities have a long tradition of being associated with God-figures. God-like refers to the human cultural construct of god(s), not to the actuality of a God. It’s a short, but accurate, way to say “with properties that humans have historically / traditionally thought of as being associated with gods” which obviously wouldn’t flow as well.