Chip and pin has been a standard and pretty thin in the rest of the world before it came to the us. You were pretty late to the game, so its not like this is an early artifact with major leaps since

I have a European chip and pin card. The area around the contacts above the chip has a slight, but noticeable, bulge. I have a newer American chip and pin card. It's thicker but the card is perfectly flat. They also did away with the bump letters and numbers.

No, it was designed to look and feel expensive.

I don't think you can get approved for cards like Chase Sapphire Reserve without a certain credit history. It's not the annual fee.

The Sapphire Reserve isn't their first card to be physically made of metal.

The first one was the Sapphire Preferred, which is presumably what the person you replied to was talking about; the Sapphire Preferred appears to have a $95 annual fee (compared to $450 on the Sapphire Reserve), lower minimum limit, and lower requirements for approval.

Although the Preferred also has an automatic $300 travel credit which covers less than a week of my average expenses over the course of a year. When I canceled my Preferred in favor of the Reserve I went through the most half-hearted workout routine from Chase I ever had in my life. The rep fully understood there was absolutely no reason for me to keep the Preferred card but still had to go through the motions of offering me a cheaper annual rate etc.

I have a CSR with a short, semi-dodgy credit history.