Paperwork and bureaucracy conducted face-to-face is completely different in its capacity for bribery, cronyism, and discriminatory behaviour outside of the official system.

Automated systems can be quite awful (original research: Spain) but neither paper or digital systems would officially state the human factors involved in turning them over. There's simply less opportunity for these human factors in more automated digital systems.

Particularly if you consider the on-ramp to corruption: being a little more lenient and helpful to those who are more polite than others blends into being a little more lenient and helpful to those who you consider "on your team" blends into blends into being a little more lenient and helpful to those who give favors in return blends into being a little more lenient and helpful to those who offer cash. Only then the artificial roadblocks begin. Fully developed corruption would likely find ways to continue after digitalization, but the ramp to get there would be so much less inviting.

During the pandemic I paid for a concierge care doctor and man it was the most convenient experience I’ve ever had with a medical provider. Cut out the insurance, he had a nurse and one office assistant and virtually no paperwork. Guy actually had brain power leftover to know who I was and what my situation was. I feel really bad for anyone wanting to become a doctor in this day and age, it seems absolutely grueling. I don’t know why anyone would go through all that trouble.

Wow, please share more details. What city and what was the total cost compared to other options? I have heard this exists in very rich places in New York City, but it costs a pretty penny!