>We sanitise input all the time.

No we don't.

Companies like the aforementioned were made illegal because nobody sanitizes input.

SQL query injection and other forms of malformed data entry is still one of the most common attack vectors in the year 2024.

Isn't making it illegal a way of sanitizing it though?

Will making (non-)computer viruses illegal sanitize the world of them?

Bad analogy. In the company name case, there’s a registry (list) with a gatekeeper (filter) in front of it rejecting very simple inputs (small strings) that don’t conform to their standards. You literally can’t get your company name on this list if you don’t pass muster. One might even say the list is “sanitized”.

No

You probably want to say "correctly handle arbitrary input" than "sanitize" inputs.

If everybody sanitizes their inputs (in undefined ways) then companies like the one mentioned would be randomly blocked from administrative processes.

This is not what we (as a society) want.

If Bobby Tables isn't a valid name the legislation should make it invalid, instead of rubber stamping it at the government registry and let poor Bobby get random errors when making requests to various public bodies. ("Sorry, our school does not admit persons with semicolons in their names.")

Sanitising inputs would mean Bobby Tables would be able to use their name just fine.