Maybe there support is not well coordinated. I notice that you are talking to different support which might result to a miscommunication. It happens to me on kucoin too and Im a bit disappointed on the support. I keep repeating typing my case everytime I need an update.They are way behind to Binance support which never leave chat until it solves. I was force to do KYC on kucoin just reclaim my account. I believe you might force KYC too. So far after that, No issue at all in kucoin at this point.
I would agree except that the very same support people I spoke with on chat are exactly the same people emailing me. In fact "winnie" whom I spoke with 1st and 2nd is also the last person to email me which I referenced in my 2nd update in the original post. I do not think they should have forced you at all and considering that you are stating what I am experiencing that does not bode well for the rest of the community under the same impression as I about kyc being optional with them in particular. Nor does it set well when reading their policies that continuously claim that it is optional or in their own words "not mandatory". Or if you look at the reddit link or the chat logs their own people say this repeatedly.