Like what? Dude! There is no app you're can install, so there's no requirement for Google APIs.

I think you have no idea what you are talking about, what the issue is, and why the scope of the project matters.

Let me try to summarize this:

EU policies require the ability to verify COUNTRY SPECIFIC implementations to be verifiable. The reference implementation linked above uses a Google API for it.

Countries, that implement the actual apps are free to offer other verification methods then the Google API.

Italy has an app currently, and this app requires this stupid Google API, yes, but that is not the above project.

The websites will never communicate with the play services! They communicate with the APIs of the authorities issuing the state ID's. The App must be verifiable to protect the user! We have a state ID app in Germany. It is open source and I compiled it for my Linux desktop and graphene OS based phones. Guess what, yeah, it works.

What many are missing here: the purpose of the verification and the actual authentication workflow.

Also, let me just cite the readme of the project:

This is an initial version of the software, developed solely for the purpose of demonstrating the business flow of the solution. It is not intended for production use, and does not yet include the full set of functional, security, or integration features required for a live deployment.

But we are all going crazy because some minimal example code relays on Google APIs ....

Please stop pushing such utterly wrong and confusing bullshit.