Getting the full benefits of E2EE (that is, protection against active attacks and not only passive eavesdropping) requires verification out-of-band in any case. Verifying is entirely optional on both Matrix and WhatsApp (not verifying doesn't affect the functionality of the chat), but gives you the same benefit on both platforms.

But then again, WhatsApp actively hides the feature away behind menus and pretends it's not really a thing, while Element is a bit more pushy about telling you about it.