Naven
Answers
Why do messaging apps make you verify your email?
To prove the address is yours and reachable — it is the anti-abuse check and the account recovery route at once. On a service that signs you in by code, verification and sign-in are the same step.
Without verification, anybody could sign up as anybody, and account recovery would have nothing to fall back on.
On platforms that use a password, verification is a separate one-time step. On platforms that use emailed codes, every sign-in is a verification, which is why there is no password to reset.
The weakness is that the inbox becomes the account. Adding a passkey is the way to have a second route in.