Its because you were alone. Paris was well known to be unsafe even for a mechanical bike. With the CoViD measures, many Parisians got equipped with high end electric and non-electric bikes and the number of them exploded. Now that there are other pricy bikes everywhere, the risk that your bike will be targeted by a robber has highly reduced. Moreover, cops and random pedestrian are also more aware. Ultra qualitative data, would be better to find more quantitative to build the case but without more info, it is how I feel it.

I felt the same in Toronto (just have a shit bike), but the bike boom this summer led to somebody stealing my out-of-true rear wheel with extremely worn freewheel, and peeling the tape off my cracked seat revealing that, yes, it is cracked, and taking it anyway.

When people are out for a $5-$10 return for crack at 4AM, nothing is safe.

The government will solve that by making you pay to register your e-bike and fining and checking the papers anyone caught riding an unregistered e-bike.

Germany had voluntary bike registration to prevent thefts, I still have an old bike with the sticker. Didn't work because the police just flat-out tells you that they will not investigate bike theft if you report a bike as stolen. You just get a copy of the report for the insurance, but they systematically refuse to do anything.

Well this sounds cool but I think the stolen bikes would be reduced to space parts very easily, which I agree is a hurdle for the thieves but still I personally wouldn't risk it.

On the other hand, if anybody has any info if this will be a thing in Germany, please let me know! It's surely better than nothing.

The registration cost 5 to 10€ which i think it's reasonable https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/actualites/A14062

It’s why Japan has low rates of bicycle theft.