If RCS is such an awesome standard, why not mandate it for all EU phones? Apple already supports the current standard, which is SMS. The idea that they have to open up their proprietary software seems silly to me.

Yup. The effect for me has been that I simply go out much less often.

Just wait till the first security vulnerability are discovered in the code that now will be able to run on iOS and which Apple can’t control directly. Nobody will remember that the cause was forcing Apple to open up their system. They will just blame Apple.