I disagree completely. You could literally give zero effort, focused or not, and sit on the bench of a winning team. On top of that, your parents could have 100% made you do those things.
>You need a valid phone number to create a gmail account
This is 100% not true. Yes, the main site will require it, but there are legacy "portals" that allow signup without a phone number. No, I won't link to said portal.