I was afraid of this, when I bought my 15PM. Traveled to Chile, and what would have been a quick transaction at the Entel store ended in disappointment. Apparently you need a Chilean ID to purchase an eSIM. Fortunately, I brought a pixel 3 I can hotspot, and takes a nano sim, but it’s something of a hassle. My only regret so far.
There is a study out there that suggests that middle class Americans only travel internationally once per decade, and that includes Mexico and Canada. I’m guessing that Apple figured out that they could save a few bucks in costs and operational efficiency per phone by removing the physical sim. That extra profit was enough to screw over the small minority of us who have the privilege of visiting other countries pretty often.