Like the OP, I'm also annoyed by the data-grab aspect of requiring a cell phone for unrelated things like A/C or cameras. Does anyone else keep a second "BS cell phone" for such things? I know one person (my daughter), plus myself, who have factory reset an old phone and use that for many of these BS uses. I had a BS phone with a real phone number in the past, but let that lapse, so it's wifi only, currently. It often is good enough, but might now work for everything. You add a "Joe Dokes" google account get your camera or air conditioner running, and you never check the email after the setup. If you don't have an old phone, you can get one on eBay without spending much. You can also get a phone plan for almost nothing*,** if you only use it very occasionally to complete some BS setup process. The examples, below, might not be optimal, but just to show there are some really cheap ways to have a BS phone at the ready.
By the way, if someone has a better name for a phone used in this way, I'm all ears.
* For example, $10 set-up and it looks like $0 monthly (but "taxes" are a question) will get you 10 text messages per month and 25Mb of data per month.
https://www.freedompop.com/plans/free-plan
** For example, $10 pre-pay will allow you to do SMS at $0.05 per SMS (sent or received). The annual on this one is $30, I think, because although the money carries over, the 'line' must be renewed every 120 days.
https://www.pagepluscellular.com/plans/10-standard-pin/
*** Here's another possibility:
https://textfree.us/ It looks like you load an app, they give you a phone number, and you're off to the races.