I totally agree, and I definitely prefer cash too. Though, I think gift cards would make a tiny bit more sense if they were worth more than their selling price, since those money are getting tied into their ecosystem. However, that would effectively make them work like infinite discount coupons; E.g. pay 80€ for a gift card worth 100€ (20% off), then just instantly redeem it to save those 20% on anything you want to buy that costs 100€.