wait, people can just do that? How does that even work? Does Visa not supposedly protect both the seller and the buyer?

In Western Europe, a chargeback is not that unheard of, but it still requires you to make your case and follow a procedure and review. It's not that lengthy or difficult, but you cant just buy something online and then do a chargeback, unless you can clearly show that the download is not working and tried the helpdesk or you were mislead or something

It’s supposed to be the same in the US, but due to heavy automation on both sides, the “evidence” presented on either side is essentially pages of rasterized TIFF slop propping up a handful of bits of ground truth data.

I suspect most decisions are now made based on ambient factors such as “does this customer file above average chargebacks; if not, believe whatever they entered in our multiple choice questionnaire” or “if we have any undisputed payment on the same card by the same account, push back, otherwise eat the loss”. Part of this is even getting codified by newer network dispute evidence rules as well.

Since nobody ever seems to hold cardholders accountable for misrepresentation, and since it’s psychologically much easier to lie on a whimsical multiple choice form you fill on your bank app when bored on the bathroom than to sign a printed document containing a short summary of the legal consequences of willful deception, the situation is what it is.

Sometimes, whether a society is actually “high trust” depends on the transaction amount, and whether that amount warrants legal expenses on either side.