iCloud in iOS and mac os require my phone password to log into icloud on my mac? Since when?
This is likely due to iCloud's end-to-end encryption. According to Apple's iCloud security overview:

End-to-end encryption provides the highest level of data security.
Your data is protected with a key derived from information unique to
your device, combined with your device passcode, which only you know.
To access your data on a new device, you might have to enter the
passcode for an existing or former device.