

Everyone has different preferences.
My separate debit card and transport card won’t discharge or just stop working as likely as a phone. It also won’t be suddenly affected by bugs, nor will it get slower. Nor do I get Google also tracking every single payment as well.
The only disadvantage is compatibility. So many things, and now even some shops use contactless-only terminals, while I got contactless or magnetic payments blocked. Only chip + PIN.
But anyway, the shop that had to downgrade to contactless only due to increased fees on regular old terminal also started asking people to pay in cash instead, again, due to the fees.
I don’t know the specific methods, but 3G, 4G and 5G do authenticate bidirectionaly, just 2G doesn’t, partially why Android now has “Disable 2G” toggle.
Also probably why they said they can downgrade you to 2G to intercept communication.
What’s happening here is probably similar to anyone being able to send Wi-Fi deauthentification frame to your device to disconnect you. Unless you’re using WPA3.