> Why would anyone want that

Well, if you are used to physical cards, it's pretty much the same management mechanism, and mass adoption probably rests on maximal familiarity.

I'd certainly like better power-user options on top of that, but it's a reasonable default, and quite usable.

> Well, if you are used to physical cards, it's pretty much the same management mechanism…

Not really. I have 2 cards from the same bank and they look identical. I grabbed a sharpie and wrote on one of them so I could tell them apart. Sadly I can't do that on Apple Pay (and it sounds like Google Pay takes the same approach)—I just have to memorize the last 4 digits of one of them. Sigh.

Exactly this. The current CC situation isn't good either but at least they have an excuse because they are old as dinosaurs physical cards and there are workarounds like you mentioned (I do the exact same thing with the sharpie). Reusing them as the only way we identify payment options in the app is completely nuts.

That's exactly what I want. FYI