You don't have to use E2EE if you don't want to. I personally don't because I don't care about it, and it adds extra difficulties to the experience.

Matrix has E2EE support and many clients are pushing it as the default. But it also supports rooms that are only encrypted in transit.

Respectfully, not even close. Verification is when I sign in from a new device, I use an existing device or second passphrase (either-or) to ensure that yes, it is me on both devices. I never have to reveal my ID, name, phone number, or email address to anyone. Not to Element, the Matrix Foundation, or the person running my home server where all my [encrypted] messages live.

My understanding is that there's two different types of verification.

Self-verification means that any new secondary devices you log into your account with will need to be verified by an existing login by way of an automatic popup that asks if you trust the device. It used to just be a Yes/No button but I think now they've added QR codes and/or emoji matching.

The other kind is verification between two different people, like when starting a direct message conversation, you might get the same emoji matching window to verify each other.

It’s still decentralized. If you read the article this is about cryptographic verification, not anything about ID.