Yup I’ve seen a large grocery store keep business going during an extended power outage with hand-written ledgers and cash transactions. Customers kept coming in to shop despite the outage.
Both my credit and debit cards are instant prints that don't have the embossing those require. Running the old carbon copier over them wouldn't show anything except maybe a vague outline of my credit card.
Apple Card doesn't even have a number printed on it (because you can request a new # ad hoc, via the app), let alone embossed. Just my name, and (without walking to get the physical card) Apple logo, and I think a Goldman-Sachs logo. If the power goes out, the card's only utility would be if you need a thin piece of titanium for your McGyvering.
I remember getting mine in the mail and being utterly astonished by that. My Apple Card number has been replaced three times and the fact that I mentally have to tell myself "no, you're not getting a new card, so don't be looking for it in the mail" is so much different than any other card (debit or credit) I've ever had.
Weirdly enough, replacing my Chase debit card is so much easier with an Apple Wallet because it instantly gets a new card number while I wait three or four days for a card to show up in the mail. I can tap to pay in the interim and it's so much less of a pain in the ass in the interim.
It should be a requirement. From all the national security bullshit I've seen this must be the easiest way to permanently turn a country into chaos.
Also funny is losing your id card/passport and your bank card/credit card simultaneously. You then need to get a new card from your bank that requires a valid id and you need to get a new id card which costs money. And no driving! "Gladly" this process takes so much time you can usually borrow money or pay it for you.