When chip and pin was first rolled out, Europeans were shocked by the low security of swipe cards in the US. The reason that wasn’t an issue for Americans was (and still is) that credit cards have excellent fraud protections.
If someone steals my credit card, it is the bank’s problem, not mine.
The risk of paying by debit card on a regular basis is unfathomable to me, even with fancy tech to try to make it secure.
Your comment on the risk of paying with debit cards surprised me. I've never considered it a risk at all. It made me realize that perhaps here (in the Netherlands) we have consumer protection systems in place, in addition to the payment systems, that prevent any issues.
This is an Americanism, my European debit card had consumer protection clauses pretty much on par with credit cards.
And yes, phone NFC payment is one of those technically unnecessary conveniences that's really easy to get used to. You probably already have your phone out or at least accessible in like one second, paying with it instead of pulling out your wallet and finding a card or even cash is just sooo nice. I hate that I've gotten this used to it.
That being said, you can still get NFC payment on a rooted or reflashed phone. Instead of Google Wallet, find a bank or card provider that has their own app. I use the Curve "proxy card" and it works fine.
I also see a lot of people struggling because they need to pay while being on a call or because their smartphone is just way too big to be handled comfortably with one hand given the size of their hands.
Physical CC can be used by anyone holding it or actually just standing close.
Contactless payment with phone only after the phone is unlocked().
Physical card contactless payments have a limit (don't remember it) after which you have to use it with pin. At least all mine. Boring. Payments with apple/hoogle/Garmin have higher transaction limit.
I could probably go on longer but these are for me.
() I know it can be done without, but it also can be done with.