Yes. Which entails document fraud, expense and pretty significant risk of failure. No system is perfect, but a fake id is very different than the clerk just asking everyone how old they are and calling it good.

You really cant see the difference between checking an id and asking someone their age?

The point is that asking is completely pointless when lying is free and impossible to detect. You need some way to verify truth, and that necessarily entails exposing PII somewhere in the process.

All California accomplished was to add an api for exposing self reported age. That is very different than actually knowing a customer’s age. Any liquor store can tell you.