As far as I am aware the UK is indeed an outlier in terms of the strict requirements of many data aggregators for each record to come with a ‘real name’. I believe this is a legacy which has stuck around from of our long tradition of recording before the days of photo-based recording – where verification relied on verifiers personally knowing and trusting the recorder. I hope this legacy is on its way out, but there is still an old guard ready to fight tooth and nail to defend it.
I researched this topic as part of my MSc final project – a recording of a talk explaining my study and results can be found here: https://biologicalrecording.co.uk/2025/09/16/inaturalist-invertebrates/