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Management: "Hey guys, we need to implement some sort of payment system". Developers: "Ok, we'll see what's out there." Developers: "This one isn't well documented, this one isn't either... Oh hey this one is." Developers: "We suggest Stripe." Management: "Ok"

I think you vastly underestimate the importance of ease of use.

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Well it is a hard problem, isn't it? First impressions do matter, sure

Management might also have a problem later in case of non-payment/chargebacks etc

But, in general, people need to look past the first impression

Accurate, appropriately detailed, and up-to-date documentation and references are about way, way more than "first impressions".

I really don't see how it's a hard problem either? How often does a payment gateway API really need to change? Just spend the resources necessary to get it right. If you really need to, hire (another) FTE on docs.

Yes but you'll only know how good it really is once you try it

At first glance some docs look good but when you go to use it, it's confusing/incomplete/outdated

I don't think anyone argued that great docs are sufficient for a great API. They are a requirement, though.

I feel like stripe changed their api every day. They support legacy apis forever but you could definitely have a full time job keeping up with the latest version of stripe.

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