New York is very quickly rolling out OMNY, which does support apple pay. It makes me happy, and I can't wait until I can buy my monthly that way
Chicago and Miami are likely to follow suit since they already support Fitbit Pay (disclaimer: my employer, but I don't speak for them) - https://www.fitbit.com/us/technology/fitbit-pay/banks
It is still slower than what I'm used to in Japan, where people have been paying for transit with their phone since 2001 or 2002. (Tokyo also went from 50-ish pilot stations to 500 production stations in just a few months. In New York, I think 2023 is the estimated completion date?)