"Why would your real life persona need to be "verified" in order to read things, rate posts, watch videos, make posts and comments? "
Easy. Control my friend. That is what they always want. Just like in China.
I've emailed to support at parler.com and asked them to justify why they need the phone number for sign-up. I also mentioned that this requirement is holding back a lot of potential users from entering their platform. In addition, I told them that many are holding back not just because of privacy, but also safety; since they cannot 100% guarantee they won't be hacked (and hence their users personal phone numbers) then this pretty much amounts to an absurd requirement. Lastly, if they tell me that phone is required for 'authentication' then I call BS on this, as it can be done adequately via email (this is only a platform for posting info/comments, after all). Perhaps, arguably, only 2-factor authentication should be required with phone such as banking/brokerage/crypto - in that case I think it is "justifiable" - otherwise, not so.