Judging by downvotes and other comments, people seem to not believe the issue is practical. Anecdotally, a good friend of mine has an Iranian passport and name,

Judging by downvotes and other comments, people seem to not believe the issue is practical. Anecdotally, a good friend of mine has an Iranian passport and name, and despite otherwise clean records and 15+y living and working elsewhere, he has a legitimate hard time being rejected by banks as well as payment processors (even through his non-Iranian company) when signing up for services. He did manage to sign up for GCP by using a friends' card. Smaller providers often bounce in the sign-up process when using his own credit card and he just won't bother trying to resolve that anymore. Heard similar anecdotes from of other Iranians and Syrians I've talked to. But not everyone - it does seem arbitrary.