I remember when the 3DS was region locked (cartridges can only be read if the console is bought in the same country those games are from) meaning it’s a headache having to switch between two variants of the handheld (I had a Japanese 3DS XL and an American 3DS regular back then, alternating on each one depending on which game I wanted to play). The switch alleviated this by making the cartridges / console region free.
I feel like it affected collectors more than anything. Whenever I bought a game it was waaay easier to get a hold of PAL copies (my region) than any others. So I don’t remember it ever being an issue