In theory yeah it shouldn't be that bad. In practice there are many different third-party charge providers, and they all have their own RFID cards you have to order in advance after setting up accounts and adding payment methods and whatnot. Or if you don't have the special RFID card that matches the station you want to charge at, you might be able to download an app and set up an account on your phone, but a lot of charging station apps are buggy and hard to use. Many of these third-party charging stations are also unreliable, or only have one or two plugs which may be occupied when you show up. In practice the whole third-party charging ecosystem is just a mess and the Supercharger network has none of these problems.

Holy hell the future is awful. How did these companies manage to mess up "swipe your credit card for electricity?"

The alternative is worse. It doesn't really matter if it is the same as ICE. Every time I use my credit card at my local gas station it asks me if I'd like add my phone number to receive text ads. Every time. Telsa is not going to let that happen. People are paying for a premium for electric cars still and that premium should come with something better than the alternative. Telsa has delivered on that. The concern is that traditional car companies aren't. Telsa made the decision early to own the process from beginning to end. Just as Steve wanted with Apple when he came back. They do not want to be dependent on a third party for their customer's experience with their products and their dedication has shown through the lifetime ownership of their vehicles.

Not only that, thieves are very crafty nowadays with skimmers even with card that have EMV chips.

I remember being paranoid everytime I would gas up and check the pump because I have been skimmed once. All of that is eliminated on Superchargers.

Another benefit I forgot to mention:

"The company also doesn’t take advantage of the extra travels during states of emergency and it generally offers free Supercharging in the affected areas."

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/11/12/tesla-opens-up-free-sup...

Imagine getting free gas during a calamity to get safely to your destination.

When your stops are 15-20 minutes instead of 5, every small reduction is even more critical.