NAT is actually useful besides just avoiding address exhaustion. Many IPv6 networks are on NAT anyway, like pretty much every cell carrier, which maybe accounts for most ipv6 traffic.
TMo US gives me a whole routed /64. Why build and staff v6 NAT devices for no reason? At least several years ago several cell carriers were all about v6 to reduce the volume of v4 traffic they carry, because v4 requires expensive addresses, expensive nat boxes, and expensive people to feed and care for the NAT boxes.
Honestly, I don't know why so many carriers do v6 with NAT, cause intuitively they wouldn't. Maybe someone else knows. I know why a home or office would do it, it's easier to reason about there.
I got a private IPv6 only on AT&T cell when I checked a couple of years ago (to be clear, not a public one with inbound-deny). Will check again.
Edit: Ok not sure what to make of this now. On an iPhone rn so it's tricky, the Net Analyzer app says I have 5 2600:s on cell, which should be the public range, but my public IP according to test-ipv6.com is a different 2600: from all the above. Wonder if those 5 are actually the EPC.
TMo US gives me a whole routed /64. Why build and staff v6 NAT devices for no reason? At least several years ago several cell carriers were all about v6 to reduce the volume of v4 traffic they carry, because v4 requires expensive addresses, expensive nat boxes, and expensive people to feed and care for the NAT boxes.