PSN Linking - The email on the account you want to merge must be verified to complete this process

I am trying to link my PSN account to my PoE account, and this is the error I get

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The email on the account you want to merge must be verified to complete this process

I am assuming this is because I am using a different email address for my PSN account than for my PoE account? Am I forced to change my email on my PoE or PSN account to be able to link?

If so, that seems quite unreasonable. I believe it's very common to use different emails and variations for different accounts to manage spam, and no other game I've linked accounts on has the requirement of emails needing to match.