It's more of a philosophical question if you even consider such a requirement to be the same coin at all. Not really an important distinction imo. We agree in substance.
To recap past discussions, one can not be entirely sure how the world politics will play out.
So it is even philosophical from the standpoint of each person's view on the landscape out there.
I understand you meant philosophical on whether removal of anonymity is equivalent to a shut down. The reason I make the distinction is because humans have a tendency to conform in order to cope, so the government can maybe get what it wants which is compliance without destroying the entire Monero economy. Again that is one person's view point on the world landscape, so not to be taken as gospel. Last time I checked, my crystal ball wasn't perfect, lol.
As long as some percentage of mining power doesn't require pub viewkeys to include transactions in a block, then private transactions are still possible - however, with really slow confirmations. Unless we're of course talking about a 51% attack which is a problem that all cryptocurrencies have. There's no defense against a 51% attack when your attacker suffers no repercussions and is equipped with essentially unlimited funds - aka, a state actor.