The first one sounds more like a WhatsApp issue than an Apple issue, doesn't it?

Where you place the blame has little effect on how easy it is to move.

I don’t see them investing in physical dual sim when the future is e-SIM.

eSIM gives way more control to the carriers which is not a good thing. I can take out a physical SIM, move it to a different phone, bring it abroad, lend it to someone, etc and the carrier has no say in that.

With an eSIM, once it's provisioned onto a phone it can't be "extracted" and getting a new one involves the carrier, which can say no or make the process difficult/annoying, even if unintentionally.

I remember $10 ESN change fees, I too do not welcome eSIMs

Can't vouch for it, but there is software available that helps with your first issue: https://mobiletrans.wondershare.com/whatsapp/transfer-whatsa...

This only works to convert WhatsApp data from iPhone to Android, but not the other way around.

I don't understand why WhatsApp won't let their iOS version access a chat backup from Google Drive.

They do have physical dual SIM for certain markets. Ex: China

Problem solved: moved to china (I jest)

I'm in Singapore. Some mobile phone stores here bring in the Hong Kong versions of the iPhones, which have physical dual SIM too.

I specifically searched for and bought the physical dual SIM version of the iPhone 11 Pro, because most of the MVNOs here still don't support eSIM.

Does the Chinese dual-sim iPhone have any restrictions or downsides compared to a US or EU model? I might consider it as my next step if I can let go of the iPhone 8 and its fingerprint sensor.

I just looked through my iPhone's emoji keyboard and it doesn't have the Taiwan flag: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-08/apple-pul...

If I used it with any regularity, I could probably work around it with a keyboard shortcut.

Which region are you in and which region is your system set to? I always thought things like this were determined by which region you select when you set up the phone (or something similar like detected via GPS/network instead of being bound to the hardware itself).

Singapore, with Singapore SIM cards.

I have nothing that links to Hong Kong or China, so it's probably implemented by identifying the different phone model number of the dual SIM iPhone.

I switched from android whatsapp to ios years ago and still have all the messages. I don’t recall how I did it, but it is definitely possible unless whatsapp locked things down.

I think they have iCloud backup for whatsapp

For me its

* all phones go obsolete in about 2 years and there is no reason paying $1000 for one when I can buy one 80% as good for half the price.

You’ll never get Apple fans to understand that. They will happily toss a $1000 Apple’s way yearly for a new unrepairable device to be created with rare earth metals in China, shipped across the ocean on a freighter and then turn around and tell you that paying more for a charging cable is helping save the environment. Diehards do not care about the cost, they are already paying.