American card terminals pretty much universally suck compared to everywhere else in the western world so it's not that surprising to me.
According to staff at a few shops in my area when asked why they always ask if tap to pay is ok they said a lot of people still don't allow them to tap and insist on chip+pin still.
You mean in Australia? Yeah, I worked in retail while I lived there and it was pretty common. People seemed to think that using it would somehow make them more vulnerable to thieves for some reason. I even had friends who called the bank to exchange their card for one that didn't do contactless.
According to staff at a few shops in my area when asked why they always ask if tap to pay is ok they said a lot of people still don't allow them to tap and insist on chip+pin still.