Because it's lying to your customer to have a phone number you don't use listed. Listing a number is an advertisement that you offer phone support.
conciselyverbose
The alternative is to not list a phone number and to abandon Google until they remove the requirement.
Listing a phone number you won't answer is lying to your customers.
You should really work on your reading comprehension. I have repeatedly made it clear that the requirement is not OK.
"I'm only as much of a piece of shit as Microsoft" isn't a good defense.
There is no possible scenario where publicizing an invalid contact method is defensible behavior.
OK, then you're being really sketchy and screwing over customers.
Not publishing a phone number is perfectly fine. Publishing a phone number that's a black hole is extremely anti-consumer.
The issue isn't acquiring a number.
It's that publishing a number implicitly comes with the responsibility to monitor that number, which is a huge burden, especially if it's readily visible to bots.
A phone number? Hard fucking pass.
I don't think it's unusual.
Big companies need a promise of some length of support in order to commit to a product.
It's fun how they're both conspiring not to use their ideas to not have to pay for them and also stealing their patented ideas at the same time.