And when the code won't scan, people's natural tendency is to then move closer to the QR code (make it fill the whole screen), which doesn't help at all. But if they instead initially move away it can fix the issue.
I'm not sure what would cause this? Maybe a reduction in relative angular distortion? Or perhaps only a crop of the image is "scanned" for QR codes?
But yeah this, (very) anecdotal, data point would counterintuitively push for a smaller QR code than "Works now"(maybe 10-20%).
The best experience I have had was the Queensland system. The QR codes I saw were different than explained at the end of this article. They were small (Original NSW size) but very simple codes. From the look and the number below, I assumed it was just a 6 digit number. Those would scan very fast (as in while I was still moving the phone at speed to align with the QR code).
In NZ the behaviour is: stop, aim, scan, wait, done. But in Queensland it worked so well I could just keep walking, wave my phone in the direction of the barcode and it would catch it.
Anyway, I just found those experiences very interesting, maybe others will too :)