Uphold (and Gemini) are required only for those who wish to KYC. Brave cannot act as a funnel for unchecked funds between large advertisers (e.g. Walmart, Amazon, Coinbase, etc.) and anonymous external wallets. If a user wishes to "cash out," Brave must comply with relevant AML laws and regulations. Note, this requirement only exists for uses who wish to "cash out" or deposit their own BAT, and only for the Brave Rewards wallet (Brave Wallet, a general purpose wallet in the browser, does not have any such requirement).
I'm sorry to hear that you experienced an issue with the distribution of BAT rewards; I'd be happy to assist and see to it that you receive all rewards for which you are rightly owed. If you have a Twitter account, send a DM to @BraveSampson to proceed.
Sampson (Brave Team)