I usually did not either. However Netherlands and Germany have been an exception. In the Netherlands every mobile provider shoo me out of their shop refering to yallo or libera. I had an apartment and was staying 2 months, so this wasn't the issue. And Germany was essentially the same except I only tried with 3 or so providers.

Most tourists still pick one of the shitty providers available at the airport or train station and go with that. Some of them provide a faster verification do you can walk out having internet, in Austria if you buy internet at a supermarket (it's uncomplicated there) it can take a few hours to verify.

Or Italy, if you arrive in Venedig you find ads for internet packages everywhere. I actually needed to go to the mainland to buy a a normal SIM. As no one on the island acknowledged the cheaper packages available.

My point is, it's complicated

Source: I've spent months (if not years) with my laptop In Europe and Asia and internet always was the #1 priority. I also do not know if things are better today

I just remembered the actual issue in Netherland, Germany as well as Switzerland. Normal Prepaid is generally expensive, what you want is a always cancelable contract to get the fairest (most local) price for a short time. And here is where it gets more complicated based on residence and stuff

Edit:// I spent over 200€ on prepaid internet that 2 months I was in the Netherlands. A always cancel contract would have costed I think about 20$ a month for unlimited (and way faster) internet

Which ones? AFAIK that ID thing was an EU law?

Also roaming is a good point. 5 years ago when I was active travelling this was no option yet as only contracts had proper roaming. Cheap roaming in the EU is basically new, and some ex. Switzerland is mostly still excluded