I've been locked out of my email because Google insists that "we don't recognize your device", and locked out of my other accounts because my phone was stolen, not because I didn't remember my password.
People forgetting passwords isn't a problem that's solved with other schemes. It's a problem that's exacerbated by them.
>- we pay more in bank account fees to subsidise fraud compensation
Bank account fees, seriously? I can't remember the last time I've paid any.
In any case, worrying about saving the banks a few bucks is dead last on my list of worries.
>- we have our personal information stolen because others chose weak passwords
If our info can be stolen because someone else chose a weak password, the weak password isn't the problem. It's the system that was badly designed in the first place.
>Given how much we suffer from other peoples' poor choices,..
We don't.
>By analogy, we all benefit from fences by cliffs
The analogy doesn't hold because you have to first show that alternatives to passwords are better for the users, even those in the category you mention.