I actually agree with this decision. If you're privacy minded, what the hell are you doing on Discord? At the very least, learn Matrix.
But for your average user, let's recall there are literal pedophile rings on Discord. This is still on-going in 2026, they pay low-tier YouTubers to promote their channel to children, children join, they get blackmail material on them (especially young girls) and then force then to do sexually explicit transmissions, record it, and sell it. This is not one example, there are hundreds per day.
So you know what? Yes, require age verification.