It’s like the immigration trying to dodge the bullet by using the embassies as a shield. They shifted this screening responsibility to the embassies, and they can’t let anyone go inside unchecked. If a criminal or a terrorist were to come in with a visa exemption and wreak havoc, there would be consequences for them. So I’d say having a concrete visa is still better than not having one. At least they’d assume the embassy has already done the screening work. But that doesn’t mean you can stay here long-term by doing visa runs on tourist visas.

I don’t see why you are worried so much and so early. You now have a tourist visa, not even a visa exemption. After using this one, you can go to Laos to either do a border run or apply for another single-entry e-tourist visa. I’d recommend the latter, which I did a few days ago after “abusing” the visa exemption privilege multiple times and getting denied entry, given their tightening control over visa exemptions. By the way, next year they probably won’t count your previous year’s entries in the total number. Either way, you will not break their rules. Also, they may be more chill during low season.