No, I'm suggesting that you need to prove who you are using a high level of authentication (ideally things like passports). That identification can then be use

No, I'm suggesting that you need to prove who you are using a high level of authentication (ideally things like passports). That identification can then be used to associate you with addresses, e-mails, phone numbers, etc using sources like credit agencies and probably Google's own existing information, which can then be associated with the logs on the account. And this should be used for accounts with significant amounts of inactivity so it isn't a process that could be used for actively used accounts. I'm not suggesting that Google employees just trust someone who just says they lived somewhere and had some phone number.