Yep, it's a race to the bottom for CAs to perform the absolute minimum work necessary, because otherwise competitors come in and make things easier for customers. Paying a premium for the services of a stricter CA currently has no benefits, since end-users have no way to evaluate whether a certificate is legitimate vs sloppily or maliciously issued by a different CA.

Funny thing about ccTLDs are that end-users might actually have some sort of opinion one way or the other about their trustworthyness, foreign or not. At least a tld is somewhat more visible and relatable in URLs compared to unfamiliar CA company names.