I'm European and have never seen that, got any examples? And I'm wondering if you're talking about only the frames or the lenses too? If you've got really bad vision you have no choice, and the thicker the lenses the fewer kinds of frames are available. Contact lenses don't work well for many and there are several reasons why surgery might not be a choice.
Neither of the people in those photos need glasses. Or, those glasses have plano lenses; there's no distortion at the edges.
Large frames like those require very hiugh index lenses, because otherwise your lenses get really thick at the edges. My prescription is fairly bad, and I need 1.67 index to avoid stupidly heavy lenses.
Also, frames without nose pads don't usually stay put on your face. I find them very uncomfortable, esp. since I have to wear glasses for everything.
The extra-shitty part is that the lens in your eye gets less elastic as you age. I'm myopic; if I had gotten LASIK years ago, I would now be hyperopia, and would need glasses to read anything.
I would 100% replace my eyes with cybernetic ones if it was possible.