Re: exchanges, they were forced to use this policy, generally. It's not laziness, like it was 10+ years ago. Re: hardware wallets, that shouldn't be a problem, we have watch-only with xpubs, right.
Discussion
I love receiving and paying to xpub but noobs don't love handing out xpubs.
Well you shouldn't have to hand over xpubs, right. Software should be able to let you get a fresh receiving address.
I'm not familiar with any standards that would facilitate repeat payments without repeat communication other than xpub. I get paid to xpub when I'm in repeat payment contracts and also pay preferably to such xpubs where I can pay to a new address without having to communicate a new address in the moment of doing payroll for example but it's too cumbersome to expect people new to bitcoin to go that route. If I don't hand over the xpub, each payment needs interaction.
Oh, repeat payment without communication. I was just thinking of p2p payments.