Another anecdote: Started using a password manager in 2017 (8 years) and today I have 520 credentials, using it for everything from my normal accounts to environment variables, configuration and a bunch of other stuff. Only thing I handle myself outside of it is ssh and GPG keys.
Real-ID is such a farce. I have had an ID since I was 15, and presented my birth certificate and ssn as a minor to do so. There is no instance where I am not "real".
I have a US Passport that took less effort and paperwork to get than a Real-ID. I will never submit.
The passport card is also an option, one that’s small enough to fit in a wallet. It can be used to cross land borders, and to fly domestically (but not internationally).
Unlike most driver’s licenses, a passport card doesn’t expose one’s address. This makes it a great form of ID to use in non‐airport situations as well.
> Unlike most driver’s licenses, a passport card doesn’t expose one’s address.
Coincidentally, this is also how it works with German passports. You're legally required to have either an ID card or a passport (or can have both.) The former has your address and comes with a bunch of ever-changing digital signature/ID features (that you need a special reader or app for). The latter is just a biometric (still RFID but well) passport, with only the city (issuing authority) listed.
There's also no need to get a real id drivers license in that case except for convenience and reduced risk of losing the passport, since every identity verification circumstance which restricts allowable drivers licenses to the real id version also allows a passport.
You're totally right that drivers license and passport ought to be sufficient documentation to get a real id, at least for US passport holders or for foreign passport holders when suitable evidence of lawful status is physically present within their passport. But that's not how the real id rules are written, since two proofs of the address of residence are also required. Not all non-real id drivers licenses prove residence (as opposed to for example mailing address), and at most, driver's license plus passport will provide one such proof and not two.
Documentation of the Social Security number, such as a Social Security card, also used to be federally required. Although this requirement was removed, nothing forced the states to remove the corresponding requirement in their own state-law rules, and some states still retain that requirement. Providing any Social Security number you have been assigned is still federally required, and the number is still verified against SSA records, but the feds no longer require the applicant to provide proof that it's their number.
