[jonathanlydall]

Can't speak for the rest of the world, but in South Africa mobile service providers will let you do eSIMs for things like Apple Watches, but not for anything else.

I think this is because it's common for them to offer "data only" SIMs which have far lower rates than data on a SIM card which can do both data and voice. Typically these data only SIMs are made available just for mobile WiFi hotspots. My suspicion is that not generally offering eSIMs is about protecting this business practice.

I don't know anyone who likes any of the mobile companies here, people just use whoever they feel is the least intolerable.