as a consumer accepting that

That’s the special condition we get in the US, though - there is little or no effective choice across the spectrum. Without regulation, corporations will become asymptotic to maximum financial extraction techniques. There are few real choices at the consumer level and the barriers to entry are such that a single consumer - or even an uncoordinated (read: without a national, staffed organization) - cannot circumvent the system.

Maybe in somewhere free like the EU or SEA. In the US, most phones bought from a carrier (and most sales are that way, some exclusively so) are locked so that no other SIM (e or physical) can be used.

These should, instead, be implemented by NFC. You tap their “reader” with your phone, never surrendering it, and they get your ID number just like a merchant gets your CC info for a charge. Their backend pulls up your record just as if they’d scanned the qr code on the back of your physical card. Or you can locally transmit a facsimile image to a promiscuous reader (airdrop/nearby share) you approve.

Apologies - I think the Witcher was mostly me. I finally decided I was going to finish it so I could move on to something new.

This is the biggest reason for me considering wiping my steam deck and installing windows. I know that’s heresy in this community but, honestly, I don’t give two shits about my OS, I just want to play the games. If using the touch pad and a set of desktop icons (which is how my desktop pc is configured) works, fine. I’ve never owned a console and don’t need the console experience.

For now I have more Steam backlog than I can play, but when I get around to swapping the SSD…well , I’ll burn that bridge when I get there.