But ebay STILL doesn't make this easy to do, after so long that this has this been a problem for those that don't have ebay's preferred option of photo I.D.

WHY IS THAT if, as we are told these verification checks are required by legislation ?

It's not that long ago that ebay was saying that ONLY photo I.D was acceptable, which was never true.

Now they grudgingly accept that there are other (non photo) ways  to verify and even tell sellers about them.  But still make verification as tortuous as possible without giving ebay what it really wants, photos of sellers. 

As these have now proved to be un-necessary, the only reason for ebay to continue making life difficult is because it gains something by doing so.

So what is this really all about?  Site security OR handing ebay yet more info. that it can exploit (sell) for its own benefit ?