[WhyNotHugo]

It sounds to me like they care more about people using a PSN account rather than just selling games.

I can't imagine they the tracking data they get from accounts is more profitable than an actual sale.

Perhaps they're convinced that forcing people to create accounts somehow leads to more future sales?

[xyst]

It’s likely one of the elements of requiring a PSN account.

Also apparently in some countries, Sony will verify the age and identity of users by having them upload a govt id and add selfie.

I don’t remember this step in USA based accounts though. So ymmv