[I think it's really sad that a well-thought-out and well-intentioned non-trolling comment such as yours is downvoted. Especially that you could predict it so easily in advance.]
I went to set up a gmail account the other day for testing out an online game for one of my kids. It wanted to "verify" me with a real-life phone call.
So I just went over to hotmail and set up an account there instead. Sort of a blast from the past, but it was relatively painless.
Email spammers try to open massive amounts of webmail accounts and then exploit those accounts to send tons of email spam. Do a search like [gmail accounts in bulk] to see people trying to spam the Gmail sign-up process. Things like a real-life phone call or phone number/SMS add friction and make it harder for spammers.
It would be so cool if Google could engineer that process the other way around. Instead of me giving Google my number, why can I not dial into a phone number of Google (with my own number hidden). I think that would a) get more friction you need against the spammers and b) retain my privacy (at the cost of a phone call).
I went to set up a gmail account the other day for testing out an online game for one of my kids. It wanted to "verify" me with a real-life phone call.
So I just went over to hotmail and set up an account there instead. Sort of a blast from the past, but it was relatively painless.