[raw_anon_1111]

That’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s worked that way since 2011.

If you go into the Apple Store or your carrier, they hand you new phone, you log in to your iCloud account and it asks you which back up you want to use if you have multiple backups. You might these days have to enter your passcode from your old device.

You or they call your carrier or depending on your carrier you can register your e-sim directly from your phone.

[mindslight]

Well it's certainly not that way in Android+GApps land, which is why I wrote my original comment.