I hear what you’re saying. The rule is a “shortcut” and the full rule would include all of the steps you need to take to verify the gun is unloaded.
But
the reason for dropping off “unless verified” is because EVERYBODY gets stupid sometimes.
They want to avoid this conversation:
“Hey, did you verify this gun was unloaded?”
_Yeah!_
and then it turns out it was loaded because the 2nd guy didn’t check for himself.
It’s about taking responsibility for your own handling of firearms rather than trusting a system to take care of thinking for you.