[zxcvbn4038]

My advice is to enable 2FA on your account and then Google pretty much leaves you alone. Last I checked you did have to provide a phone number when initially turning on 2FA, but once you have any other 2FA method defined (totp, u2f, recovery codes, etc) you can then remove the phone number.

Without 2FA it can be a real pain to recover a Google account if you get locked out.

[rainingcatndogs]

I did have my phone number linked to gmail and I was able to reset my password using otp code, not 2FA though. As you say, it might not happen if I enable 2FA but I've had enough that day frantically trying to get my ~10 year old account tied to many things back. But still, I would like to keep my account and will follow your advice but won't be counting on it to last forever anymore.