I'm sure it's more of a "cover your ass" scenario where in the future, if someone gets past the ID verification system and uses an account to commit a crime on their platform, Roblox can just say "the ID company verified it!"

I don't think anything has changed, but COPPA isn't the only regulation with age requirements. GDPR also includes age requirement (https://gdpr-info.eu/art-8-gdpr/).

From a quick read of the article, I think this is intentionally going beyond the requirements. They obviously feel that this will build a safer and more trustworthy environment at the expense of other issues, including a loss of users who don't want to provide identity.

There are truly unsavory elements that will intrude on a virtual environment for children. Roblox corp knows exactly what they're dealing with due to their existing support requests- and they can imagine the implications of adding a spacial voice feature into that mix.

I trust they're not going overboard here.