Erase iPhone pending - stolen iPhone

Hi my phone was snatched whilst unlocked and i believe switched immediately off or onto airplane mode. I managed to get into my iCloud account and switched on ‘lost mode’ and then changed this to ‘erase’ it now says ‘erase pending’

I’ve since read a post on this forum from some years which explained if your network provider blocks your phone I.e cancels the sim this will prevent the ‘erase’ function which I guess means all my data/photos etc will be available

Does anyone know if a) this is still the case b) any further steps i can take to protect my data?

Thank you