The difference is that I can’t mint infinite ID cards, and it is much harder to get a skeptical person to accept a photo ID of the wrong person.

in person? sure, that's harder, but we're talking about online services, right?

many times verification is simply uploading a photo, GenAI can make a nice fake ID.

are these id verification sites linked to government databases? for usual KYC it's enough to save the photo and do the minimal sanity check, no need to phone home an ask Big Brother.