Could the device maybe render itself disabled?
I think there may be an aspect of negligence, which may also be exacerbated by false claims. It's arguable. I've been thinking a lot about this over the past couple days and it seems to me that this type of service could have been designed better with stalking in mind. As I've already said in other comments, my biggest gripe is the ease of concealment and length of serviceability on the same battery.
With the "anti-stalking" features of triggering the unwanted tracking alert and recoginising that it is moving for a period of time outside the presence of the owner, the device could disable itself after, say, a couple days or maybe a week. The owner should get alerted while it's on the move within that time period, thus helping the owner to track it. If it's not retrieved and reset in some way other than close proximity within that time, it's out of action until then reset. Maybe it's not the device that needs resetting, but the instance of Find My Network, so maybe it can still send out beacons, but those will stop being displayed for the owner.
Granted that Apple do seem to have taken greater steps to discourage stalking than other device manufacturers and those that operate outside the Find My Network service, but more ought to have been envisaged. IMHO, all similar devices should operate as I've described in order to minimise abuse. If you haven't located your lost device within a reasonable period of time, then you haven't really been paying attention. If that doesn't sit well, then let's allow for the location to still be discoverable through a more rigorous process perhaps involving the authorities.