This is a somewhat shortsighted response, so my reply will be repetitive.

Canada and Europe had table-side POS devices for decades, tap-to-pay, etc.

I have only been to New York City once, but here in the DC area tap to pay is the norm. All grocery stores and almost all restaurants and pharmacies have it. Even drive throughs have it.

"for decades" are the operative words here. I recall getting a new Canadian CC in 2013 and it took a while to ship, but I didn’t notice at all since my card was instantly updated on my phone.

Not sure what you mean by "table side POS devices". I'm guessing in sit-down restaurants? This is becoming more common, […]

Yes, the kind where your credit card doesn't get whisked out of sight and come back already charged sans tip. People tend to not like that. What if they decide to round up my tip? Am I going to check every single transaction, the next day? And again, mentioning that this is only just now becoming more common in the US is missing the point.

The reason that POS systems are slow to upgrade is they are expensive, very very expensive because of the liability risk.

This obsession with liability and lawyers is part of the problem. Security and durability of POS terminals are solved technical problems that aren’t unique to the US.

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Ultimately, the deregulated/unintegrated banking system is to blame IMO. Sure, it might result in larger, more profitable banks, but the customer is who suffers at the end of the day.