What laws, rules and regulations are they designed to circumvent?

Well, obviously, this to begin with:

My issue with AirBnB properties is that people buy places to rent via AirBnB which means that locals don’t have access to such places for living. I definitely feel there should be legislation that requires people to prove they live in the properties they list on AirBnB.

Which is a real major issue in my humble opinion. And then, those doing that not being submitted to the same taxes/rules/insurances requirement and so on than, say, traditional hotels and other places like that. As I was saying, it's built as a way to circumvent all of those and that should not be legal no matter how useful it may be.