I can see your reasons for complaining about the European pricing
scheme. However, there are some advantages, some of which others
have already pointed out:

I don't have to worry about giving someone my number.

It is obvious from the area code whether it is a mobile
number, so the caller can decide if he wants to call it.

It is more difficult to change one's mobile-phone contract
than to change one's method of calling mobile phones. The
European scheme has created a huge market in Europe for
so-called "call-by-call" operators, who offer better rates
than the telcos (mostly to mobile phones and for foreign-country
calls, but in some cases for domestic calls as well). This has
brought down the prices by an enormous amount, due to the
competition, which probably would not have been possible as
quickly due to competition between mobile-phone contracts.

The traditional telco prices are no longer competitive. For
domestic calls (whether long-distance or not), the going rate
is 1 cent per minute or even included in the monthly internet fee,
this is VOIP of course. For calls to mobile phones, call-by-call
operators offer rates around 10 cents per minute. For foreign
calls, it varies between less than 1 cent per minute to 20 cents
per minute or so, depending on country. (Technically, there might
be VOIP behind the scenes here, but it is not VOIP to the end-user,
but rather "call by call" (i.e.. dialing an additional number before
the actual telephone number, which might be done transparently to
the user via some black box).