Airpod Pro 2 hearing aid feature blocked when abroad (Paraguay). WHY?

I have an US Apple account, but currently live in South America/Paraguay.

Why can I not activate the hearing test or hearing aid features?

Anyways - the AirPods were purchased through Amazon US, are already in my possession, my Apple account is US, and I really do not understand why this nanny-state nonsense kicks in just because of my current physical location. Can't someone from the US use their AirPods as hearing aids while they are on vacation abroad?!

Why is Apple unable (or unwilling) to leave it to the customer if they comply with questionable local regulations (which is not even the case in this case).

There used to be workarounds for this type of medieval tribalism, but so far I have not found any for this situation (unfortunately all my devices are on iOS 18.x). Anyone have an idea or successfully activated this feature while being in one of the many countries that Apple does not care about?

You mean Nanny States, not state. It's nothing to do with Apple at all. It's the individual authorities in the individual countries who approve them. Apple is abiding by the rules that the FDA imposed on them to be allowed to market the AirPods as hearing aids.

The answer to the vacation abroad question is simple. If you are going to another country switch auto update off. If you had set them up in the US and you are running IOS 18.1 they will work. If you go on holiday to another country that hasn’t received approval and they auto update in that country they will no longer work.

if you have an Apple iPad or an old iPhone running an older IOS than 18.1 you can get them working and they work very well.

You just set them up in a different way via Settings/Accessibility/Audio and video/Headphone accommodations.

I have been using them on an older IOS since September (17.7.1) but they have been available to use as hearing aids since the AirPod Pro 2s were launched in September 2022. IOS 18.1 stops them working in the country I live in (the UK) UK with the geographical lock. Use the Mimi hearing test app from the app store for your test.

I guess because it is not activated in the country that you're visiting