The federal government has been encouraging agencies to get serious about identification.  From the Executive Office of the President, to NIST, Homeland Security, and even the Office of Management and Budget, the motivation has been the COVID-inspired move to the cloud.  If it were just one cloud, there would be a few issues.  The complexity begins when clouds become dependent on other systems, whether it is an on-premises system or a hybrid cloud.  Identity seems to be the best way to assure security.