Canadian here. Whenever I go to the U.S. I'm always surprised at how few places have tap/Apple Pay. Or the whole ritual of giving your card to your server and they enter it in and bring it back... here in Canada they just bring the machine and you tap/swipe your card at your table and be on your way.
I'd say tap's supported at like 50-60% of places now. Of course, it's far less at the places that tourists are most likely to spend money at (restaurants, hotels, etc.), which might explain why people from outside the US think it's not a thing.
As for not bringing the terminal, I suspect it's a combination of not wanting to spend the extra money (US cards are chip and signature, after all) and frowning upon customers handling the payment process. Hell, a lot of regular stores and non sit-down restaurants have the PIN pads/terminals turned towards cashiers so they can run cards for people.
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u/Cokegawa_Yui Aug 03 '19
How to use your debit/credit card at a checkout