apple’s idea for account recovery is to wait two weeks. there’s nothing i can do to authenticate, it’s an endless loop of two factor authentication to a number that doesn’t work while i’m abroad.
people have complained for years yet they have done nothing to fix this problem. it’s insane. i have so many items for my business connected to my apple id and i just have the one phone, so now it’s all locked out permanently. they refuse to have any human with clearance to touch this issue, it’s intentionally terrible.
no, this is not a good protection against hackers, it’s punitive to those who don’t have multiple apple products with them at all times. if someone has exclusive access to my phone, my credit cards, my email and my apple id then they are me, or they are not me and will be willing to wait the two weeks as it’s a minor inconvenience to a hacker but a major one to the user.