[w3c/webpayments-payment-apps-api] Is the concept of payment app registration necessary? (#8)

Have we ever considered removing the payment app registration concept from the spec and just letting payment apps handle the first-time experience in their own way? Most will handle it well, some have no first time experience.

It seems like the whole concept is just adding complexity to the customer experience, they have to make a decision to install one of many payment apps (some may be for the same payment method). This is an extra step on top of just selecting a way to pay, as they do today. As soon as you require the merchant to make a new choice around their purchase experience, you increase the possibility of cart abandonment.

>From the merchant experience, we're reducing their ability to have confidence in the checkout experience their customers are getting. As a merchant, I want to know with certainty that if I'm supporting basic cards, for example, that the experience is first class (a specific payment app I trust, like the browser itself) or I'm going to bypass it and implement it myself, which changes nothing from how it's done today. As a merchant, I also now have to figure out a seamless way to get my customers to install these new apps, even if they already have an account or the apps have no need to registration (for example, paypal supports guest checkout).

>From a payment provider perspective, the spec I have to implement has a lot more complexity. I have to now deal with this new registration flow, on top of any original registration I have to create an account/etc.

>From a user agent perspective, it's definitely very useful to know what payment apps a user likes to use, but I would argue that this is still possible without the concept of registration. UAs can still remember what payment apps a customer used last, their preference on certain sites, etc.

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