Why not? Unless the thief can generate the unlock signal, he can't easily restart the car. It would be trivial to make the lock signal so complex that it couldn't be brute-forced, so I presume that has been done. The car could probably be hot-wired, but if the car is to be sold whole, it has to look and function as though it was whole. I suspect that would require replacing the ignition system. Replacing all the functionality of such a high-tech system sounds a lot more complicated than replacing a lock cylinder or re-keying a few old fashioned non-encrypted locks.
Obviously, I don't know much about car theft. Maybe this stuff is simple.
A stolen car usually goes right to the chop shop. Parts is parts, worth more than a whole car. Think ‘Roach hotel’ cars go in never come out.
Misspent youth as a juvie.
Is that something like 'hacking'?