Bitcoin ATM might have its shortcomings but its spread is showing that Bitcoin adoption is growing even in the face of stringent government policies.
The news article reports that the U.S has > 82% of BTC atm's worldwide, so i don't think there is that 'spread' that you are talking about. However, it is not a bad news, so..yeah. The government of countries where BTC ATM's operate do not have a problem it, as long as the BTC atm operators have been approved by the authorities to operate and set up their machines in the country.
I thought US is that strict when it comes to crypto/BTC, so I was surprised when I see that data. But even if the spread is mostly happening on one country only, that can still be considered as a spread and we can still say that the adoption is growing. News like this are not an example of bad news but it is automatically a good one.
I think government and authorities are the same but I know there are also other authorities like for example Police. Anyway, government still has the power before them and can dictate whether this or that thing is allowed or not. There are reasons on why a government can ban a crypto but only if they will try to be more open-minded, they can only gain a benefit with it.