No! Only required if you want to participate in society.

And what gets me is that it's not just 'you need a phone', it's 'you need a Google or Apple account'.

You don't only need the account, you need a phone that is locked down with hardware components and cryptographic keys that attest it hasn't been modified "unauthorizedly". Where the authority is not the device "owner" but Google, Apple, and the manufacturer

The account would be easy enough with fake data and a 10€ prepaid one-time-use phone number. Finding an exploit in Android such that you can turn off Google's tracking but not trigger their "you modified your device" scans (that are to be tied to your government identity verification continuing to work) is a game I'm not looking forward to playing.

And neither Google or Apple are EU-companies.

Participate in a society, to be precise; at least in the US, the Amish seem to have created their own.

not A smartphone: an iphone OR an android verified device.

not your linux phone with waydroid or fairphone with lineageos

Well, only smartphones made and controlled by American corporations that are subject to US laws.