Apple probably really does want European MVNOs and others to get onboard with eSIM. Since the European models do still have a physical SIM slot I suspect this will be another year where Apple doesn’t want to have 2 different versions of the main PCB layout so the US PCB will still basically be the same as the rest-of-world PCB with an empty space where the physical SIM tray would otherwise be. Once Apple can be eSIM-only everywhere it can optimise the PCB layout to take full advantage of no longer needing to allocate space to a physical SIM holder.