Why do people feel the need to split hairs with these terms?
He's not splitting hairs. It's just a different value proposition. I don't like the phone number requirement either but it makes sense to your average normie who realizes SMS is exposed plaintext. Something like an anonymous seed phrase as the key to your account would confuse most people. Email would be an improvement but it's at best pseudonymous.
This is true though. 1992 Bill Clinton would be a republican today. Biden supported a 1994 crime bill that is considered racist today. Obama didn't support gay marriage in 2008. Now liberals are fighting for sex change treatments for children. People 30 years ago would consider such an idea a grotesque absurdity.