This is victim blaming. If you have the correct credentials to an account, Google should never say "we're not letting you log in anyway, and there's literally nothing you can do about it".
Phone numbers are not a magic cure-all-ills pill, either. My phone plan became outdated and my number wound up being cancelled, which means my old work email now no longer can be accessed.
If Google actually gave options to its users instead of babying them and pressuring them to give up all their personal info (like EVERY OTHER EMAIL PROVIDER), this would not have been a problem. Google clearly cannot be trusted with anything of value.
If Google actually gave options to its users instead of babying them and pressuring them to give up all their personal info (like EVERY OTHER EMAIL PROVIDER), this would not have been a problem. Google clearly cannot be trusted with anything of value.