I'm not exactly pleased by this development either and I'm afraid we'll eventually end up seeing it in Austria too. The fact alone that nobody but the manufacturer knows how an AFCI works is enough to give me serious doubts. By comparison, the way an RCD works is well-documented and it is fairly easy to determine whether an RCD works as it should.
It's interesting to see that NZ is converting to TT, whereas Austria has been going the opposite route for the past 15 years. In 1998, the TN-C directive was introduced, effectively a national law forcing the conversion of all supplies to TN (with very few exceptions such as installations in the immediate vicinity of 16.7 Hz railway power systems). TT supplies now require two series-wired RCDs as backup protection.
