No, I was doing a fast sync (but not a light sync, which is different). I wanted and got the transaction history & full code for each smart contract on the chain, but didn't care about verification of each transaction in the chain.

You can run a full node that verifies everything on an ongoing basis without doing a full sync from the genesis block - just start it in fast sync, let the chain catch up, and then run it again in full mode. Unless you believe the Ethereum blockchain has already been compromised, there's no reason why your personal node has to verify everything from the genesis block.