Magnetic stripe cards cost issuers a few cents each. Chipped cards cost a few dollars. The cost of an individual card is still small compared to the annual fee, but in aggregate card issuers are spending millions more, and it's not surprising that they have pressed card fabricators to lower costs by using different materials, and spending less on design.
Prior to the Costco card I cannot remember a Citi product with built-in Contactless chip. My recollection is that they offered this function through a separate key fob or sticker.
Diners Club (USA) and HSBC (USA) have issued Contactless cards for several years. American Express (USA) offers Contactless as an option on most personal, and some business cards. It is a standard feature of the recently refreshed personal American Express Gold card. Chase has announced that it will add contactless to Sapphire cards. It's something that Citi needs to revisit.
I was referring to the photo on the card. I have not seen that on a major credit card, other than the Costco/BJs ones etc, in a long time.