It's not Emirates forcing payments, it's EIDA.
Who knows why.
That those who never applied don't get fined while those who failed to renew (or more like were foiled in the first place by botched equipment/systems/clueless staff) are getting fined is just par for the course.
Except it seems that there ARE new applicants getting fined also, if they were in the UAE for longer than a few months...