As somebody who works in local government IT, consistent scraping of our data like this is the bane of our life. We get hit by thousands of these, many with no rate limiting, making hugely intensive requests, that cause downtime and knock-on effects for actual customers and citizens. We block IPs, add captchas, and yet it persists.
If you really want the data, just FOI it for goodness' sake.
I get the distinct impression that many of these outfits aren't really advocating for impoved transparency but are simply trying to exploit and monetise illicitly obtained government data to make a quick buck.