>>> The US plug is uniquely bad in that you can have live contacts exposed on a partially plugged in plug

> Yeah until you have kids. Before GFCI were a code requirement, electrical incidents were a constant source of injuries and fatalities.

Isn't GFCI only required in wet areas (e.g. kitchen and bathroom)? And even if they're not more widely required, code requirements aren't retroactive, so I'd imagine the vast majority of houses will be missing GFCI from a large number of outlets.

Electrocution of curious children has always been pretty rare, like on the order of one bad bus crash, orders of magnitude less than childhood cancer. It's the kind of thing that gets overblown people that would rather double down than reassess their beliefs.

Regardless, the typical outlet is not GFCI protected just due to the math of volume of new construction vs old construction vs service life. We're probably close to 50% coverage in new builds, more in low room count/wall area apartments. Tamper proof outlets are a better solution for this non-problem anyway.