I agree with your assessment of the current situation. But I think the solution is to break up the duopoly, either by leveling the playing field or creating government-run alternatives, rather than force the duopoly to do certain things.

This is the “instead of providing school lunches, eliminate poverty” argument.

I am fully supportive of fostering competition. But until the market actualky changes, monopilies / duopolies should be regulated to prevent this abuse of power.

Rejecting a simple tactical solution in favor of a future systemic overhaul is classic perfect vs good.

Governments put up infinite hurdles to creating new payment processors. There actually used to be more of them before the industry consolidated. Also Discover just got bought and American Express is getting their ass kicked by the big two.

People have been trying and failing to create new payment processing companies since at least the 90s. The richest men in the world, even (Musk).

Governments prefer the current status quo.