I'm not sure if they've changed the process since your issues (hopefully) - I was using their trial and when it expired had to go through the KYC process. They under-promised by saying two working days to reach out, but everything was wrapped up within an hour and done over email.
I nearly moved away from Twilio having read the negative feedback, but my personal experience so far was very prompt support.
Hey, that's good to hear. Was it a recent experience for you? Maybe they heard some of the feedback and acted on it.
This encourages me to revisit them, not because I'm unhappy with my current provider, but rather because Twilio offers what I need (a number that can receive and send SMS) in regions where my current provider doesn't.
This was last week.
I ought to caveat that from a KYC perspective, I likely would have been 'easy' since my career history involves many well-known companies and the requested account was for a UK company that has been running for nearly 20 years.
Though I'm no longer personally in the UK. Microsoft on the other hand: It was impossible for me to open up an Azure account even with their Customer Support. Suspect I will have to use Tailscale to bypass overly rigid geographical controls.