Well, my case is the best proof of that: the phone number I ended up using was my mom's.

It's most definitely baloney because I also had to provide ID. So, certainly there is no way I could identify myself "even more" by giving them a phone number than by giving them a government issued ID.

> Our phone numbers are not identifiers.

I think you missed the point. The process creates an identifier, by strongly associating you with the phone number.

This association allows the bank to quickly establish your identity later when you call up or use online services.

It's not necessarily just for the 2FA snakeoil. The worst places snap on a glove and proctologize your network identity metadata (spilled by all the underlying carriers, IIUC), and sometimes even billing records with your name and address (more vulnerable if you're still on a postpaid). The US desperately needs a port of the EU's GDPR, for starters.

I don't think the assumption that SMS is enough is valid anymore.

My wife's elderly aunt has a flip phone that can receive SMS but not MMS. We just went thru an "identity verification" procedure with a major bank last week that sends MMS, not SMS, and could not reach her flip phone.

The whole ordeal was a huge pain in the ass and if my wife and I weren't there to help her it would have been completely impenetrable to her.

I could also buy a smartphone. The point is that I shouldn't have to.

Sometimes the code must be received through the bank’s app. I went though this process recently to open a new account (at a bank where I already had other accounts). I didn’t think much of it at the time, but if you didn’t have or want a smartphone, this could be a major problem.

No, I don't really use a lot of service that require 2FA and for the ones I have to (e.g. work), there's always been a workaround.

But this might not really have been a 2FA case - I mean, I was physically sitting in the bank.

It's not so hilarious, really; there's nothing like a stint in the sausage factory to put one off one's taste for sausage.

I know I'm in the minority but I value privacy higher than convenience. I'm aware that not having a smart phone does not automatically equal total privacy, but I just cannot get myself to have a personal tracking device on me 24/7.

Many security/privacy nerds don't own end consumer gadgets etc...

Some folks go vegan after seeing how the sausage gets made.

I know Chrome / Chrome-adjacent googlers who swear by Firefox.

Ahem, more than one ...

Imagine being on hacker news and having an iPhone instead of a Pinephone /jk.

I'm always annoyed when some real-world good or service is only available to people with a smartphone, especially when it wasn't always so. Blue Bikes (rentable bicycles) were in the past usable with a membership card, but it got phased out in favour of an app.