But if you do care about KYC and do it the non-KYC way, won’t you have to pay using a debit card or credit card? Which could then just be traced
Even if it was banned from every single exchange on the planet it is impossible to stop people from buying it.
Every crypto is one simple swap away from Monero (e.g. Litecoin, Bitcoin, Ethereum)
You can also still buy it directly with fiat using DEXs like Bisq or Haveno
In the US you can still buy Monero using traditional exchanges like Kraken or KuCoin for now if you don't care about KYC
https://paste.sethforprivacy.com/?e839f39d0171a97b#Cx6NMmUdH25dmkq2ux54gu6h4vEND28hkPohQY9aEEej
Discussion
Not necessarily. Cash-by-mail is the most anonymous way. But even using payment apps like Zelle, Revolut, Venmo, Paypal, Cashapp, etc they have no idea you are buying Monero. They just see you sending/receiving money like anyone else. They don't know why.
You can also work for it directly or sell stuff P2P