> why would they still use it?
"If this authentication system didn't work nobody would use it" is literally the reasoning I mentioned above.
> we're no longer dealing with yes/no results
That's exactly what we're dealing with. Iterate through the list of fingerprints in the database, does provided == stored.
You might be interested in reading about CER (crossover error rate). It's the term used for discussing the trade-off between type 1(false positive) and type 2 (false negative) in biometric systems especially.
https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/57589/determini...