[djhworld]

That hasn't been my experience at all, at least in London, UK.

There used to be a time where the oyster card was slightly faster than the phone in terms of registering at the barrier but that's improved a lot over time.

I don't live in London anymore but when I've visited it's been so good just tapping your phone through everything.

Additionally the hold ups at the barriers in my experience are more down to people's misunderstanding of the cadence required between each passenger. This applies to both oyster/card and phone, and is more of a UX problem of the barrier rather than the technology used to activate it