I argue that direct NFC payment provided by my Spanish bank is equally (not) private as by card, and a lot more convenient. I understand I am giving all that data to the bank.
The point here is to avoid Evil Corp *also* snooping in to collect and cross the data with all the other data they collect, and sell it.
Cash has none of those downsides obviously. But I no longer feel safe using ATMs and carrying a wad on me where I live. Also, it can be really frustrating if you carry little and for some reason need more. ATMs are becoming ever scarcer where I live, and an absolute rarity in some towns.
Using BTC is simply out of the question.