[UzzyFTW]

Who buys a phone from a carrier (bloatware) anyway.

Perfer going to the tech shop and buying it straight there with no bloatware ;P

well most popular phone companies in the US use CDMA for phones rather than GSM(what most of EU uses). With CDMA it's easier to but a phone from the carrier and know that i'll work rather than buying an unlocked phone and hope that it'll work. the US is retarded as far as taking phones from one carrier to another for example an lg nexus 5 from sprint wont work if you try it on verizon and vise-versa even tho their both CDMA.
long story short: Europe is awesome because you can throw your sim card in any phone and it should work where the US is shitty and compatibility sucks.

UZZy correct me if I'm wrong but is compatibility an issue in europe if you wanted to take your phone to another carrier? I think that's the main reason why people buy from carriers in the US.

Yeah we can use any SIMs in our phones here.