i had a similar experience with nexus, my account was tied to an old ISP e-mail and my account was deactivated because they detected hacking or smth, i couldn't get the message to reactivate it cus the e-mail account was gone, so i contacted support and they couldn't really help me. they asked for a drivers license and birth certificate but that wouldn't help anyway cus my real name was never on my account haha
think of it from their perspective though, they have no way to know who you really are. anyone could figure out your username and password and send an e-mail with a made up story about losing access to the only other means of verification. if they let people by with this kind of thing, your account would only ever be as secure as your password. if someone knows that, then you'd be forgeted. the entire point of e-mail verification is to add a second step to the process and make it more secure, because ideally your password is different for your e-mail. if you can't somehow link yourself to the account other than with the password, they have no way of knowing it's really you. this is the same predicament that badspot has been in with e-mail recovery problems. there's literally no way to know who's who unless you can match what they think is correct.
