My new iPhone 13 Pro did not come with a SIM card. Is this typical?

If you purchased an unlocked iPhone then yes that is perfectly normal. You pick which cell provider you with to use and either get a physical SIM or use the eSIM in the iPhone. No account is set up if you bought an unlocked iPhone.

With the iPhone 13 Pro Max that I recently purchased, Apple streamlined the process by including an eSIM account. 😉

The benefit of this is now you have the ability to switch to another cellular provider much more easily and switch between them! 👍🏼

My unlocked iPhone 13 Pro Max came with no SIM card in place. I simply went down to Verizon and requested a 5G SIM card. I could have had them provision the eSIM over the phone, but I'd rather keep that free.