> which phones already meet
All phones, really? Or just the one you care about? Even if it's all phones, it sets a bar, and it doesn't hurt.
> Toothless and useless regulation, the EU strikes again.
This is unfair. The EU brings many regulations. Ever heard of the Digital Markets Act? USB-C? EU does a lot for the ecology/climate (more than the individual countries, actually). There are many examples. Probably you don't like all of them, which may be frustrating. Doesn't mean the EU is completely useless.
I find that people love to hate the EU based on some regulations that they hate, and more often than not based on discussions about potential regulations that they would hate (like ChatControl). I hate ChatControl, but the truth is that it hasn't been accepted at this point.
If you consider the marketshare of phone brands in the EU, it's mostly apple, Samsung and a few large chinese brands. They already have batteries that meet the legal definition. Good regulation can have outsized positive effects but this just creates paperwork and changes nothing. But the idea of replaceable batteries made you feel better, right? The point of regulations and politics is to get positive headlines while changing as little as possible because change makes the lobbyists sad.