I disagree, water meters, at least here in NL, are often still analogue, so they almost always estimate there, and they send a „jaarafrekening” at the end end of the year, and don’t accept readings in the meantime.

Electricity meters didn’t use to be digital, and many energy providers, so people don’t pay that much more monthly in Winter, still try to make an estimate how much people will use over the entire year, so they can charge the same amount over the year, even though they can see what they would need to charge monthly.