Earlier quoted context omitted.
I absolutely refuse to use Discord ever again after they started requiring phone verification. I'm tired of every company under the sun wanting all kinds of information from me that have nothing to do with what I need their service for. It's frustrating that it's become so popular.
Phone verification is the cheap and easy way to stop spam/malicious actors, plus you get a unique identified to track people with. I imagine it's here to stay in the short term.
You can always use a disposable phone numberfrom Textita to verify any account online. https://textita.com