Chime & Co. have lowered the entry difficulty for fundamental banking services for the poor. And loading cash is trivial, walk into any number of thousands of stores (such as Walgreens which charges no fee). You see these cards commonly used by poorer Americans across all of retail now.
Was 'homeless'. Bank say no bueno, could be terrorist. I can legally carry gun no problem without papers in bank though, lmao.
At the same time, they are fundamentally not banks and are not subject to a whole slew of consumer protection regulations that ensure reliable access to funds. Venmo and PayPal are both infamous for their capricious account suspension policies (which I have personally experienced).
That’s a long way of saying that it isn’t nothing, but is also not the best we can do. It also doesn’t necessarily guarantee service users access to retail (since the cards that come with these financial providers are typically tied to banks and accompanying KYC controls).