It's funny, my bank don't freeze my money every £1.7K and force me to jump through hoops for them.
EU Legislation or no EU Legislation, Paypal milk everything they can to the absolute extreme.
Banks make you jump through hoops when you set it up and it's not every 1.7k. It's teh first time you hit 1.7k and then they have to check the same documents your bank needs. Banks take just as long sorting it out. The difference is they do it before they give you access. If you know you are going to break 1700 I'm sure paypal will let you do it in advanced.