I think you may be misunderstanding ApplePay -- it doesn't get in the way of your CC rewards - it's just a better UX for the classic CC experience. And, I think, Apple has specifically planned for cases where you damage or lose your phone and you're not screwed (or, rather, you're not any more screwed than you'd be with a damaged or lost phone, which stinks in either case!) You just put your phone into 'Lost' mode (remotely) and load your CC details onto your replacement phone. Much safer than losing your physical credit card since your number will never be exposed.

Apple Pay is just a wrapper on your credit cards - if you damage or lose your phone you still have those dinosaur plastic cards to fall back on.

Oh ok, well thats kinda convenient. I thought it was trying to go the way of a phone as credit card approach. Oh well, I'm not invested in the Apple landscape so I didn't care to learn anything about it.

Apple Pay doesn't interfere with rewards.