Thanks for those that offered tips on using the device without registering.
For those confused, "what's the big deal, just register!" :
Cory Doctorow says it better than I ever could. He gets into it a bit here
https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/13/kitbashed/ but I also recommend his book "Chokepoint capitalism"
https://chokepointcapitalism.com/
Basically, it's unjust to demand user's information in return for the right to use the device they already gave you money for. Once a company gets paid for hardware, that should be the customer's computer to do whatever they want with. This is the core belief of the open source movement.
It's not "just nothing." It's the equivalent of giving a company 400$ or whatever, them giving you a product, and then them demanding another 5$ to turn it on. Your email and attention have value (more than 5$ mind you), and it's unethical for companies to demand these of you.
I can't speak for kobos TOS but basically in 2023 if you give your email out, you're getting marketing email spam, not just from that company, but to all the companies they sell your email address to, or your reading habits or purchase history or whatever else. That's unethical. I don't want kobos friends to know anything about me. I want to give kobo 400$, get an e ink computer, shake hands, and never talk again. That should be the extent of our relationship. If other people want to engage in a further business relationship with them to buy ebooks, fine, but if I don't want to I shouldn't have to.
So it's not "just an email." It's another company with your contact information happy to give it away at the drop of a hat, it's another account waiting to be hacked, it's another password to keep track of. And also, who knows what kind of data analytics they're doing and cross associating with other places I use that email address (famously Facebook tracking is now so good they're aware of you even if you never VISIT the site, because of tracking data sharing).
No thanks. Customers should be able to hard opt out.