That 1-2% is what they pay you for all your data. Credit cards are a key component of data brokers.

The 1-2% is what they pay you for helping strong-arm the merchant into giving them 3%.

compared to all the other data collected about me with no benefit to myself that seems like an ok deal

It's a refund on the interchange fee from not doing chargebacks and paying your bills on time. Your data is not interesting or valuable, that's your ego talking.

Data brokering is a 200 billion dollar industry. Some individual data brokers say they have data on half of all transactions in the US, so it's safe to say that your transactions are more likely to be sold than not.

Nobody cares about your data (unless you're high profile), but -- for example -- hedge funds and the like will spend big bucks to get aggregate sales data before this quarter's financial reports are written.

I also like the extra layer of fraudulent transaction protection vs e.g. a debit card.

Not everyone can do it - it can be like asking an alcoholic why they don't go to the bar anymore, because the walk and the beer has health benefits.

Sometimes you have to identify your weakness and ruthlessly cut them out of your life.