I agree that the need for companies to "capture" you as a user, with apps, sign ups, etc. is a lot of unnecessary friction.

But gas stations and gas refueling had the advantage of coming up in a world before that was possible. So BP, Exxon, etc. never built all that stuff and now that they have a product they sell without doing that, they can't wall everyone in. If gas refueling was invented now, they would.

I guess I'm just saying it's a nascent industry with less volume, less usage, and fewer companies and competition. No wonder it's not as smooth as a process with much larger and competitive economy of scale