[mrsalt]

>How can a BNPL firm compete with apple offering the same service at no extra charge? Just the disappearance of easy money has crashed their valuations already.

Not really relevant to your point as a whole, but about BNPL. In Mexico basically any credit card worth having offers BNPL. Typically the agreed solution is just to charge interest to the merchant. Stripe Mexico has it: https://stripe.com/mx/pricing/local-payment-methods (see meses sin intereses), for an example of the fees involved.

In addition to this there are some institutions (like American Express) that offer BNPL at no charge for the merchant (other than the interchange fee).

No consumer pays interest in this scheme (it's in the name: meses sin intereses, months without interest), well, as long as they don't miss a payment (they charge interest then). So at least for this industry I don't think Apple is major threat. Surely BNPL firms can figure something like this out for the US. I think Mexico is not unique in this scheme.