In a car centric environment such as the US, there is a large burden society pays for when it comes to under age drunk driving. The harm from a car related fatality is felt immediately. It’s hard to compare that to the delayed and difficult to measure societal impact when kids play too much video games.
It's delayed, and difficult to measure precisely, but there's a substantial cohort of people who cannot and may never be able to support themselves due to the combination of gaming all night and cultural expectations around hiring.
Perhaps it would be free-er for the government to intervene and force everyone to have a different cultural expectation, but both are very substantial interferences.
Data? There have been really flawed studies to bash video game playing (just like there was for playing chess...look it up), but I've yet to see any that withstand scrutiny.
Most places restrict the age at which you can buy alcohol and most places seem to restrict it to at least 18. 21 is higher than the average but legal age laws seem to be pretty standard.
And as mentioned in the article the restriction to gaming is being implemented not only in China but in SK and Vietnam, what it is normal and what is totalitarian seems only to reside on who implements it. Usual tribalism dressed-up in sophisms.