Regarding your questions about KYC, I can tell you that in most cases, there won't be any KYC, unless there is suspicious activity. But each case is done on a case-by-case basis. While we want to make playing hassle free for legit players, we do need to follow laws and regulations and will do so when we see unlawful patterns.
All the reputable casinos try to give the hassle free and best services to the legit players. Most of the licensed casino makes the KYC verification mandatory for the legit players when they make a big withdrawal. Is there anything exceptional on Empire.io to use the 'Relaxed KYC' for marketing? I can't see anything exceptional in the terms. This is one kind of unique wording and I'm not against it. But the 'Relaxed KYC' could mess up with the VPN-Friendly. You won't be able to give the hassle free service to all the legit players who will use VPN.