The requester clarified the request today:
So for example if the user removes the email address, or replaces it
with another but doesn't verify it, the user rights associated with
their user group are automatically suspended, until a verified email
address is provided, when they're automatically re-enabled.
I think this is already the case. If it's not, it's a bug.
"Sysops only have sysop powers if autoconfirmed" would be a bit hard to
configure but I think is also already possible.
This would be more useful if there are situations
where the
"verified" status of an existing email address can be automatically
revoked (eg if emails to the user bounce); I'm not sure if that's
the case but if it isn't that's a separate issue.
I'm fascinated by the idea and can see arguments both ways. I thought
I'd bring it up here to see if anyone could help me think through it.
MediaWiki is installed on web servers. Giving a bounce email address to
the wiki is out of scope. However, I would welcome a HOWTO on
mediawiki.org about how to configure the email server to set aliases
that would launch
php maintenance/changeUser.php --you-are-no-longer-autoconfirmed
(which we would add, but would be a couple of lines anyway)