I've never owned crypto but I can see the appeal for privacy's sake. Even going to the market can mean sacrificing privacy – retailers are constant abusers of personal data.

Did you park at the market? Oops, they read all license plates to build a marketing profile.[0][1]

See an ad online, and then later went into the store? Oops, Google picked up on that and told the retailer.[2]

Did you leave your face uncovered when you went into the market? Oops, they use facial recognition.[3]

[0] https://www.syracuse.com/news/2014/06/who_else_is_tracking_y...

[1] https://drndata.com/

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20170523182250/https://www.washi...

[3] https://www.axios.com/2021/07/19/facial-recognition-retail-s...

In the European Union there is an online transaction limit of 50€ for prepaid cards. That's no alternative to Monero

They require you to log in and identify yourself before they can be activated.

Most actually do not require this. I buy visa gift cards with cash all the time from gas stations etc and spend them anywhere that does not take cash with no activation.