It's not a major problem for many people visiting Germany since roaming charges no longer apply within EU and you can carry your operator's plan to other EU countries, which IMO eliminates the need to buy a new SIM card altogether for many people.

It only sucks if you come from somewhere else not in EU. Even then operators (iirc at least Vodafone) offer remote verification of documents over a video call, so it's not as painful as it might seem to be. I don't see how eSIM would make this easier, since the main pain point of verifying your identity will remain.

I don't think eSIM has a number, and so no verification is needed. I bought a German eSIM a month ago and it worked without any need to register. I never had to do any video call in a language I don't understand. eSIM just worked.

I just did this in Germany last week, it has gotten a lot more painful. They now want an official document showing your German address (Personalausweis or Meldebescheinigung) making it impossible for foreign visitors to get a German SIM. Two years ago it still worked with only my passport.

Next time I'll just do roaming on a prepaid card from my home country, unfortunately my current provider doesn't support roaming in Germany.

Traveling is absolutely one of them! You're making getting a local SIM sound much more difficult than it is; even in places like Germany the process is pretty quick and most places aren't anything more than give-currency-get-card. It's also very convenient to have a local phone number as many people are not excited about making an international call to tell you your table is ready (the alternative here is being forced into the panopticon of WhatsApp). It also encapsulates the trip nicely, nobody I give my number to while I'm there can call me when I get home unless I give them my real number.

I was traveling to Germany a month ago and read that "By law, all SIM cards in Germany now need to be registered on your name verified by your ID document (and an address) to be activated"[0] and "many more places sell SIM cards, than are allowed to register" and "newly purchased SIM card... doesn't work as you still need to register."

I then installed Airalo app and bought an eSim in five minutes, still at home. Once I landed, I had 4G service for a week.

On my trip, I was never asked for my (German?) phone number but had received multiple SMS verification codes to my regular line.

Your experience may naturally be different.

[0] https://prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Germany

Traveling is one of them

Plenty of countries don't allow no-locals to buy a sim or don't allow them to by a "good" sim so you get a local to buy a sim and then they give you the sim. Not going to work for eSim.

I also used to keep an extra sim for friends visiting. Can't do that with an eSim

airalo sells eSIMs for most countries in the world, no locals needed.

It also sells one for my country, so my friends visiting can buy it from them, so I don't need to keep an extra SIM.

Just checked and exactly as I specified above, those prices are shit. 10x local prices. $30 for 3meg vis a local sim, $15 for unlimited.

So, no, airalo is not an example of why eSims are good