Placeholder text and validation

When I use any placeholder text in a generic text field my validation doesn’t go off. Presumably because the validator is seeing the placeholder text and taking it as a value and thus believing the field to be filled out.

This seems completely bonkers to me? Am I missing something or?

Any way around this other than having the labels separately ?

Thanks, Anna.

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/