Yeah, the CAN-SPAM act, as far as I understand it, doesn’t allow them to force you to make an account just to unsubscribe.
Thats assuming they obey it, and that its US based and under US law jurisdiction.
and as I learned with the national do not call registry, it is utterly meaningless and does nothing to prevent the issue at the best of times.
Also, those “unsubscribe” links can be used to confirm that your email is valid, leading to even more junk, or even phishing attempts. Have to log in to unsubscribe? Better make sure the site is legit first.
It’s surprising how often they don’t comply. I think for while adobe was asking me for a login to unsubscribe, which I couldn’t remember or be bothered to reset the password for. They seem to have changed it recently. Maybe a lawyer realized they were exposed to class action