just can't live without a user.name

Actually it's all git's fault for not working if user.name is null or unset. Ask yourself, would email programs panic if all there was only bob@example.org in a header?

But there should be a way to override it, in case those laws don't apply.
I want
  Author: jidanni@jidanni.org
like my email address above. But the closest I can get is
  Author: jidanni <jidanni@jidanni.org>
And then there are some programs that need
$ git config --global user.name $USER
just to get that, else the springs come loose:
$ git-format-patch -s
*** Please tell me who you are.
Run
  git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
  git config --global user.name "Your Name"
to set your account's default identity.
Omit --global to set the identity only in this repository.
fatal: empty ident  <jidanni@jidanni.org