Have you ever been through one of those? How does it work? If a vendor turned up to my business and demanded access to my systems for some kind of audit I would tell them to go and fsck themselves, they wouldn't get past reception.
It's legal and customary in every place Red Hat does business. Have you ever actually worked with an enterprise software vendor before?
You signed an agreement with Red Hat to allow them full access to all your systems to audit usage. You will be in breach of contract, and you'll get to meet Red Hat's lawyers.
The point is, license audits suck for everyone and present their own kinds of reputational risks (e.g. Oracle), and making them less necessary by using other approaches towards the problem is rational from Red Hat's perspective
How is it legal? Is it just an American thing?