And yet you don't know that, as nraynaud and bayart said, the French use checks (about as often as Americans). Checks are definitely a thing in the UK, too. Are France and the UK no longer part of Europe? (If you make a Brexit joke here, as opposed to actually trying to respond to my point, you automatically lose.)
>Top 3 real frustrations are the difficulty of international wires
I will give you this. When I had to send $2000 to a Canadian earlier this year, the cheapest method we found was to do so through Coinbase using Bitcoin; I think the fee was about 1% (for me to purchase the additional Bitcoins I needed; no fee charged by Coinbase for the transfer itself because it was internal).
>the frequency I have to visit a branch
I've been a customer of USAA Bank for years. As it was created to serve the military (although its remit has expanded), USAA has always been designed to work without a local branch. There are many such branchless banks in the US. That said, I have accounts with other, "traditional" banks and they have been about as online as USAA is for years.
>and how weirdly hard it was in SF to split bills (the last may have changed since 2018).
This is one of the things people use Venmo for.
I just listed some examples, but the frustration was real. Individually all minor inconveniences, but when you are used to a better system it's frustrating.
Top 3 real frustrations are the difficulty of international wires, the frequency I have to visit a branch and how weirdly hard it was in SF to split bills (the last may have changed since 2018).
But sure, first world problems!