We are not removing everyone’s names — the users are updating their own data whenever they update their account on our website (SSO provider). We rely on /admin/users/sync_sso to keep data in sync (username, name, avatar, etc) in their Discourse account. Name is an optional field and can be set to blank/empty.
I just realized the issue happens not just with name but also with updating bio, avatar, etc: it’s not possible to keep those SSO records in sync through /admin/users/sync_sso if they need to be updated to blank/empty, regardless whether they are mandatory fields or not.
I understand the point that people may be relying on existing behavior (although nobody reported this issue before?), but if this is the protocol, it seems it has significant limitations for its purpose of synchronizing SSO records.