

I don’t think that’s correct as I’ve registered a fresh account as described, during the setup phase of a phone, within the last month and no phone number was needed. I’ll give you the benefit of doubt as I don’t want to do that again just to disprove a stranger on the internet, but if anything changed it had to change in this very, very recent period.
edit: the posit of OP was to open an account in order to be able to register to other accounts, not go jasonbourne on 5eyes and friends.









syncthing to sync your notes folder (and your pictures, audiobooks, whatevers); then the editors can be anything, i.e. whatever you prefer on each platform. sync over the internet can be disabled and set so it works only on your home LAN. also, sync direction, maybe you want it to sync only one way. turn on versioning to get at the version from two weeks ago. etc.
you should be in the know by now to not get locked in by any one provider or app. always go with the thing that gives you exit options.