Just to chime in, here in Israel I've never seen an air conditioner without a heating mode. "Heat pump" isn't ever talked about because it's a bog-standard feature of every air conditioner on the market. It's just "putting the AC in heat mode".

Our summers are brutal (especially in recent years, fml with climate change) but winters aren't nearly as cold as European or American, so we don't really have much call for a whole dedicated heating system. I'm guessing this is why ACs just add heating since it barely affects manufacturing but is a massive selling point (or glaring omission) for the roughly 100% of houses that don't have other heating solutions.

It's pretty ironic that we ended up with the most efficient heating solution being ubiquitous specifically because we barely need heating.

Of course, a ton of people (including my mom) still choose to use electric space heaters in the winter. I prefer AC but I can't deny that the air feels different so it's a valid preference, if somewhat wasteful. Not as bad as gas or fire though.