[justsomehnguy]

The only reason Google does that 2FA dance is to get your phone number 'cuz it tends to be a very strong persistent marker which is very useful for... advertisement.

[akoboldfrying]

I have the same suspicion in general, but isn't it possible to use an authenticator app as the second factor instead of a phone number?

[justsomehnguy]

Try to register a new account without a phone number.