Until very recently, you're right. But the USA-bred Paranoid Fantasy World Air Security Mechanism has inspired many other locales previously seemingly immune to our collective paranoid fantasies to adopt the "laptops out" rules.

Dunno if the Idiots in Charge of the TSA have browbeaten the security professionals in other countries to do this (under threats of "we won't let your airplanes land in the USA if you don't") or if they decided out of the blue to begin requiring it.