The increased competition from international MVNOs likely also helps drive prices down. When you're traveling and don't want to plan weeks ahead, your options

The increased competition from international MVNOs likely also helps drive prices down. When you're traveling and don't want to plan weeks ahead, your options with physical SIMs typically were either 1) special roaming-oriented SIM cards from your local country (which were still a massive hassle and had to be ordered days in advance to allow for delivery), 2) getting a SIM in the destination country (hassle and might not always be possible) 3) very expensive offerings from your own provider, if they even had something better than the aforementioned car-per-GB rates. Now, you can get an eSIM from an MVNO that's from a third country, before travel or from the airport/hotel WiFi, usually also bypassing any bureaucratic bullshit that the destination country imposes on getting a local SIM. And these "travel eSIMs" are often cheaper than local offerings even for use in your home country.