The stickers are required by shipping standards, at least for air shipping. All cells must be clearly labelled. Not sure about surface shipping.

And yeah, 3.5v is about what they have to be shipped at now. 30% state of charge (or less). It used to be 40%.

Some shippers (especially from China) don’t do things by-the-book. I couldn’t care less about labeling, as long as they’re packed properly. I’ve had loose cells from China that could easily have been damaged.

If you’re getting the labels, chances are they’re doing the other more important things properly too.