I personally know someone who was a victim of stalking back in the 90s. Her stalker managed to find out where she lived by getting it from the California DMV. The only way she found to block it was to move and have her car owned by someone else so that there would be no DMV record.
The result is that while this is not new, it really should be a story.
If your scenario happened in the 90s, it might have been before the DPPA law took effect.
The author has a clear bias and is using an event that took place before the protections were in place to further their agenda.
However social engineers have no problem getting information. And private investigators are easy for anyone to hire. I doubt that the DPPA will slow a dedicated stalker much.
Having spent most of my professional career providing software support to Debt Collectors--I think you're greatly overestimating the level of professionalism by your average debt collection agency.
So the data is sold wholesale to private investigators/lawyers and retail to the public. This is just a supply chain. The data is sold to the public.
Nobody should have access to this without a warrant, its a huge invasion of privacy.
A better alternative is to have strict recording and auditing of requests and legal accountability for abusing the access (such as renting it out on fiverr).