Not just REAL ID. I have been "given the option" to "register" with ID.me "to protect my sensitive data". In the case of the Social Security website, the invitation was optional. With Security Benefit Life Insurance, a 100% "private" (meaning non-governmental) company, the demand was mandatory.
Gee whiz, signing up for ID.me would be great! Imagine the same signon for every website! Hey, we could even set it up so that one couldn't even access the internet at all without registering with ID.me! Besides the obvious danger of putting your information in a single location where it could be stolen, sold, shared or all of the above, this would also of course make it very easy to "cancel" (censor) someone completely. Not that it would ever happen. We live in a free country. Right?
BTW, I ended up calling SBLI. I got my document and severed ties with them forever.