Why do technically inept people think they're entitled to the dumbest takes, just look like a bunch of wankers. If you're gonna post your mental diarrhea do it with the same level of shame as everyone else.
I switched recently from Plex to jellyfin because Plex implemented stuff I do not need nor want, and it was full of bugs. Jellyfin works way better for me then Plex did.
You need some sort of verification that the person is a person. Phone number puts a layer between you and the service you are trying to use - the provider of the number. The provider holds your identity but only passes on a phone number.
I filed the same complaint at the Austrian data privacy agency and asked them to coordinate with the Irish one. You should do the same in your European nation.
I am the head of a large banking app / web in Europe. We have about 40 MiO logins per month, 39 (edit: millions) are done with the app.
Personally I would prefer the web version of everything important like banking always - but the customers are all preferring apps. So yea guess where I allocate my budget.
WhatsApp, telegram really covers 99% of my contacts, private or work. My parents use sms (60)
Signal is not very wide spread, mostly used for texts you want to protect for whatever reason.
I would consider it very odd if somebody writes on iMessage , iMessage was shit for groups when WhatsApp did it better.