Note that independent of this, ATH always had police control of ID/passport (like french airports too).

I once travelled Germany-ATH and back and found it quite customer unfriendly that there was no ID check at all in Germany so you could have gotten to Athens forgetting your ID, and then you are stuck for your way back. Especially given how greece is physically disconnected from the rest of EU and therefore you could also not try to land route yourself back home without ID.