Thanks for providing the context

> paying with cash (which leaves you almost always without recourse if anything happens)

One remark about this though: you always have recourse in court. We often hear the USA is incredibly litigious, but it's not like we'd not (threaten to) bring action against a merchant not acting honestly

The main situation where I see chargebacks being useful is when you fell for a scam and the perpetrator cannot be located for enforcement. Which is a legitimate concern for sure, but there's more ways of dealing with that than giving everyone the option to chargeback anything on a whim with no repercussions for them