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.
I feel ya, I just bought a 15 plus in the U.S. but I live in México and it’s been a total pita. The other problem is you can only register your Apple ID in one country/region so many apps I need in one country are not available in the other and you can only change it once every 90 days.
You can make a second Apple ID and switch between the two for 2 different countries app stores that is what I do to get local apps for 2 countries.
Thanks for the tip, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll give it a try!