IMHO - I think you're coming at this from the wrong angle, because of your payments focus.

Apple has wanted to move to a soft-SIM for sometime to save on space; and to improve the onboarding experience i.e. select your operating from a software list (or even - although unlikely right now - providing their own MVNO service).

Operators have push back hard against this, as they see this as the end-stage of their disintermediation and becoming bit-pipes. There's been a lot of fiction between Apple and MNO's on this (try Googling 'Apple soft sim'), even prompting I believe the CEO of Vodafone and Orange to pass comment about 2-3 years ago (I believe they threatening to withdraw the iPhone subsidy and volume purchases if Apple proceed).