FYI, chatgpt gave me an unsatisfying answer that, basically, "European guests MIGHT not be asked for a deposit, sometimes, because they're local and therefore slightly more trusted", but it certainly doesn't sound like you should be escaping deposits 100% of the time. So perhaps there's another reason out there we've still not discovered.

https://chatgpt.com/share/687d38d1-101c-8004-8119-6c433dd32c...