When I made my channel, the process was very straightforward. Are you sure the problem isn't from your side?
Well when trying to put in a thumbnail, I was asked to use a phone number. Admittedly one day I did have some phone service issues. However it was off and on, so when I did get service I would put in my phone number. However this didnt work because my service would cut out about 5-10 mins and from what I've heard, YouTube can take up to 15 minutes, sometimes they don't even respond. So whenever I saw my service go up I would type in my code again. however I gave up since it didnt work. So then the next day I logged into YT and it said "You have recently made too many attempts. Please try again later"
X_X
So I couldn't get my code. Sorry, I should've mentioned that it was also a bit of my fault too and not just YouTube. I needed to be patient and wait for the next day. But I wish they would give me a scheduled time of when I could put in my phone number because I've been waiting for days.
That's ok though, I think I know how to get my channel going today.