GDPR does not care about privacy.

It cares about personal identification. Such as full name and address, and a bunch of other protected things.

Why would any random service request, process or more importantly store these?

> Why would any random service request, process or more importantly store these?

So they can identify users for purposes of complying with GDPR? (For example, to handle the data requests highlighted in this post.)

The GDPR recitals do not recommend gathering additional data solely to be able to fulfill these requests.

See https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-64/ and https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-57/ - the key part is "A controller should not retain personal data for the sole purpose of being able to react to potential requests."

> The GDPR recitals do not recommend gathering additional data solely to be able to fulfill these requests

One, these are non-binding recitals.

Two, the conflict between (a) data-furnishing requirements and (b) advice against retaining data that would validate the requestor is exactly the point of this post.

That’s simply not the law. The official guidance (https://gdpr.eu/eu-gdpr-personal-data/) is that even just an IP address or a license plate number are sufficient to count as identifying a person.