Ok, that last idea above doesnt work - below is explanation that I hope helps others
I skipped the icloud setup on my new phone after being stuck and reading all this.
I then signed into to my apple account online on my computer under https://appleid.apple.com and I verified my email address (that of course I had no idea was sitting as "unverified). At some point shortly after, then, and only then did I see the pop up that showed up on the same page that said "combine your Apple ID with your primary email address" - of course, for a moment, I thought I was home free, but it then said "this Apple ID (or email, I forget which) is already taken." It then said hey "just re-sign in with your Apple ID and password" BUT I didnt realize I had to re-sign in with the FULL EMAIL version - I signed in again (at first) with my "name only" version which seems fine but isnt what Apple's system really needs me to do - I needed to resign in with my full email ID version!!
Now, on top of that normal human error/reaction, what I didn't consider, and neither does Apple yet, is that when I got the "verification" email I also (similarly) simply signed in using my normal (non-email) apple ID that is just my name - not, sadly, thinking or considering that again Apple needs me to actually verify my email WITH MY NEW NEEDED FULL EMAIL ADDRESS version of my apple ID. Of course, their verification email doesnt explicitly say to do this AND IT SHOULD. So I managed to again send myself a verfication message (a second time after singing in online to manage my account but signing in with full email ID) AND this time I signed in (from the link in the email verification) also using the "email version" of my ID.
After doing that, finally voila, I get a welcome message and all is well.
Apple needs to change it's "combine your ID and email" message to explicitly say "sign in USING YOUR longer email version" and similarly they need to explicitly say the same in their veification email - As a user who has been typing in my name only Apple ID for several years, it is not intuitive, at all, to sign in differently in this forced new process.
In sum, after your click to verifiy your email from the Apple site, make sure you do so using the new long email version of your id, and similarly, if you get the message that your Apple ID or email is already in use, sign back in to manage your account with the long new version of your id - seems simple, and yet it's not intuitive to users like me who have been doing something different for years
Apple, we need some more integrity in this process in the wording of your pop up and verification email, please.
