Maybe I'm just lucky but I have a first batch phone (#289 sold) and the SIM card detector is working fine. I wouldn't call it broken by design. Of course, when you produce electronics, some amount of it might fail undetected at the factory, and reach the end user. This is pretty normal for all electronics. Just with the small amount of Jolla phones sold and many users actively talking about it on the net, this issue appears to be more widespread than with other electronics devices. So if you happen to be among the small percentage of people to have faulty hardware, don't blame Jolla (or the factory), but ask for a replacement. You have warranty on the device.