For those interested on the question of age verification and GNU/Linux: be aware that Systemd v261-rc1 was recently released. It now implements an optional birth date field in the JSON user database (see second item under “Other changes”).
The implementation of this field was prompted by age-verification or -attestation laws.
Your conspiracy myth is wrong, and if you actually care about what’s true, you can confirm what I say very easily for yourself:
Just go to the mailing list archives and forums and follow the decision making discussions of the time. E.g. Arch Linux. This will quickly and decisively convince you that “big tech” had nothing to do with it.
But you don’t care about the truth, do you? You just want the comfortable position of being able to look down on all the mainstream fools.