I don't like requiring phone numbers either, but saying OpenAI shouldn't do freemium model for hottest tech product of this century (AI) is a fundamental misunderstanding of how humans and the world works.
Also, if they don't do freemium they're getting way more valuable information about you than just a phone number.
What part of this thread relates to freemium? Use of the API requires tokens that are paid for. General use of the AI via the web interface does not require a phone number.
Only requiring the phone number for API users feels needlessly invasive and is not explained by a vague "countering fraud and abuse" for a paid product...