Appel was a major driver of esim because they are obsessed with controlling every part of their phone so having a SIM card they don't control in their phone did

Appel was a major driver of esim because they are obsessed with controlling every part of their phone so having a SIM card they don't control in their phone didn't fit well with them at all. So dropping the SIM in the US is more a consumer hostile move to save a few cents and force them to use the tech Apple wants you to use then anything else. They can't do that in many other countries as neither carrier nor population where okay with accepting not having a SIM slot. eSIM is easily usable in the EU many people still insist on using physical sim cards for various reasons, similar "unlocked" phones are the standard in many EU countries. I'm not even sure it's legal to sell carrier locked phones in all EU countries, I think it isn't at least in some.