Apparently this is already a massive problem for people who are in countries that PSN is not avalible in, using a VPN to create an account to link to has resulted in getting banned. Also seeing as most players are already past the Steam refund window, this is utterly unacceptable.
I dont want to blame Arrowhead too much, this reeks of partnership/publisher meddeling. If they made it so that linking account is not required if crossplay is disabled, I would find that acceptable.