Every time I encounter venmo whoever has it usually apologizes for it and explains that you can turn the weird social stuff off. If that's the case, then what's the point? Moreover, it demonstrates that the people who made it have weird philosophies on things. What other choices have they made that I don't know of, can't turn off and would disagree with?

Square Cash is great, btw. No bloat, very simple, does what you expect it to. (I suppose PayPal is looking that way now these days too though)