Moving from Norway back to Australia felt like going back in time 20 years when it came to banking! In Norway I'd get a new bill and enter the code into my banking and it would offer me an option to "automatically approve up to X per month for this vendor".

Automatically approved bills didn't get auto paid - but they appeared in the "upcoming bills" when issued, with a pay date of the due date on the bill. I could go an hit "pause" or "stop" on any bill - and it either wouldn't pay or would be removed entirely. Anything that wasn't auto-approved would start in paused mode and I'd have to manually approve it - but that was a single click.

Still, I agree that when I'm in the states it feels crazy old tech. They still require signatures on credit cards!