These were strange requests and you did well to reject them. The red flag for me is the desire for a phone call and lack of verifications, not lack of photo. There was another thread about this recently, linked below. I’ve hosted over 300 people over the last 3.6 years and I can’t tell you how many had no photo or an unclear photo. I’ve had dozens of guests who looked nothing like their photo other than the appearance of the same gender. Since the thread I linked I’ve started noticing there are many hosts who also don’t have a clear picture of themselves. There is no doubt that Airbnb is not requiring photos.
As for the spirit of community and all that…I’m afraid Airbnb doesn’t care. You can try to create it in your rental but don’t expect much help from Airbnb. They want and need to make money and avoid government regulation.