In V you could insure a car and get it back if it was destroyed, and there was an impound for vehicles the police took.
With car ownership apparently mattering more this time, and resale value tied to condition, an insurance system would either be very important or deliberately absent to make losing a car hurt. Has anything been shown either way?
An impound you have to break into rather than pay at would be very much this game's whole personality.
breaking into the impound to get your own car back is the single best mission idea in this thread and its a throwaway comment
Nothing shown either way. What we do know is that damage lowers resale value, which is the closest thing to a stated consequence for wrecking a car.
With the fence system and the app valuation, cars are clearly meant to be assets. So I would expect an impound over insurance, because an impound is a fee and insurance is a safety net.
Your framing of it as a design choice rather than a missing feature is right. If cars are meant to be disposable then insurance is a mercy. If they are meant to matter then losing one should cost you.