I could not agree more. What the mod said, "Swtor does not handle account issues like this except over the phone" wasn't true not too long ago. If you wanted to move your mobile security key (or authenticator as you called it) from one device to another because the screen broke or for whatever reason, you could request a one-time password emailed to you to prove your account ownership (in place of the inaccesible security key) so you could still log in and recover the serial key for your account. That was an automated process that allowed players to access their accounts (and therefore play) anywhere, anytime. I'm pretty sure the cost (if any) to have this handy feature ready for your paying customers is negligible.
I used it myself several times. Now, should you lose your security key (someone deleted mine!) you need to call EA over the phone at the same time that, yes! you guessed it! YOU are at work yourself, since you can't log in without your security key and you can't setup your security key without logging in. Or, you could open a chat window at sales.liveperson.net (no joke, that's the domain) and wait basically forever to see if you can get an answer. Personally, my wait time went down (20 min ago) to 35-40 min (down from 120). Hmmm....way to go, EA?
All this time, I should have been playing. Kinda why I subscribed, EA, to play.