No, they are 2 problems:
1) attempting to confirm through tiscali (and only tiscali in my experience) don't work. Other providers work. So probably it is not a programming problem but something that can be resolved speaking with them.
If it is a programming problem it affect only some account.
2) the provider removing the link for security reasons can be resolved easily sending the destination address in a extended form and not only as a link. Almost certainly that kind of change don't require a developer to work on it but can be done by an assistant with the right access.
It would be easier to wait patiently if the character was a miner or a woodcutter. Give the order "mine for 24 AP" and move to the next day. But he is a tanner. No "gather pelts" order.
"Just asked the pop-up to send me an e-mail and ignored the whole process."
So the only stop gap solution is to spam my e-mail address to avoid the pop up for one session? Sad but better than nothing.
Every time I log in the game, it asks me to validate my e-mail, and even already validated the e-mail more then 20 times, it keeps asking for it. For me, it's not much trouble, since it only asks once per session.
Fixing it doesn't seem hard to do, but I guess the programmers can't just do a fix and put it on-line. Even the most insignificant change in the code requires extensive tests and observation to make sure it doesn't mess up with something else, and I think that's why they can't spare some time to fix this. Also, I guess they wait for few fixes to release a patch, instead releasing it one by one.
Anyway, it's annoying, but I would prefer a major update then few little fixes. But that's me.