Well ... if they had not collected that information but wanted me to have six months, might they not have put that in their Ts&Cs? Then they could have pointed at them and told me that I was wrong. Yet, all the conversation was about 'meeting the requirements of the destination country'. Which I did. THEN they told me that their govt wanted me to have six months. As it was less than 24 hours before travel, this did not help very much.
Anyway, it's history.