This is just a particular implementation of "reset password". I don't have legal recourse if the sites I use don't implement a good account recovery protocol...

This is just a particular implementation of "reset password". I don't have legal recourse if the sites I use don't implement a good account recovery protocol... They could implement it as "if you lose your password you're SOL" if they want. It's just a nicety for me to be able to "implement" this myself by configuring a set of people or of technical steps I can use to recover my account.