Interesting, I went through that verification a few days ago because it would only let me withdraw 0.25 BTC, not 3 BTC, maybe they changed the limit recently? Also it's worth noting that I only needed the passport photo and a separate selfie, perhaps the extra steps you describe only apply to US citizens.

It also took less than an hour, compared to two weeks with Coinbase and 5 days with Bitstamp which is pretty impressive imo.