Things are not "good" because somebody made you feel it is comfortable. 800 Euro for an Apple device, account at Apple, network connection with provider and full battery - together with a credit card and all of that is no hurdle? You can just pay immediately with cash. And nobody will be informed about it! Words of critique upon Apple are usually not welcome here. When I look how bad entitlement handling is with MacOS I have more critique...beware.

However if I happen to have an Apple device it's by far and away the easiest (and most secure) way for me to pay. And yes, I do prioritize places that take Apple Pay over those that do not.

There are lots of iPhone users and often business can getting better (lower) processing fees by accepting more secure methods like Apple pay so if it's literally just flipping a switch and possibly paying a bit less for processing why wouldn't a business do it?

I'm not endorsing Apple Pay, but I also don't carry cash, so how am I supposed to pay? Sure I can pay by card, but now the credit card company knows what I'm buying. Also that involves another person who has to come accept the payment which I could've done in peace on my phone using Apple/Google pay. Not everyone want to carry cash around.

I don't have an iPhone. So, recontextualize my comment in that light, and give it a more charitable reading.

Apple pay is, for the poster, a stand in for NFC pay of some sort. Which indeed requires a device, which indeed is its own class of requirement, but also, cash works even if less practical.