We often deliver news about a certain country acknowledging bitcoin or cryptocurrencies and immediately assume that it is good news because finally they will have clear regulations when it comes to crypto. Another reason why this is considered a pro is because people trust bitcoin more and thinks of it as official when endorsed by the government.
However upon inspection, sometimes you will realize that the government acknowledging bitcoin is not actually a good thing. First of all, the government's acknowledgement is limited to only being a speculative asset and not as a currency that can be used for official transaction. Second, their rules and regulations usually include AML and KYC which totally strips away investors' privacy and disregards decentralization. Third, governments only acknowledge bitcoin to implement high taxes which only drives investors away.
So at the end, not all kinds of acknowledgement is good.
You really made a good observation op. I remember when government of different countries were busy banning Bitcoin from their country and all of a sudden they have made a U-turn and started endorsing Bitcoin, if I may ask what happened to differently? Is it a matter of time? Not only that. They have fought bitcoin and discovered that they cannot win, so they decided to embrace bitcoin and find a better way to tax it. I agree with OP that the reason some governments are embracing bitcoin is to find a way to tax it.
Governments who were once discouraged from investing in Bitcoin, are slowly becoming interested in it. They have learned from their mistakes. Some governments feel that if they had taken a positive view of Bitcoin earlier, they could have benefited more from Bitcoin investment today. Some governments have already changed their view on Bitcoin. They are now discussing how to become large holders. There may be start a competition in governments on how much Bitcoin they can accumulate. If governments can impose taxes on the use of Bitcoin, they will definitely try their best to legalize Bitcoin.