Comment by chii

what if that alternative was "worse" than the phone number method? Would you then complain that there's no "easier" alternative?

For example, a photo-id as an alternative, which imho is way worse?

The problem with presenting an alternative is that if it is "better/easier" than phone number, then it gets exploited by the spam bots. If it's worse than the existing phone number method, then you'd have the exact same complaints, or worse.