I think the argument is convenience. Battery/Durability seem like pretty empty arguments when comparing something that exists in software to something physical

I think the argument is convenience. Battery/Durability seem like pretty empty arguments when comparing something that exists in software to something physical since if that was the case most things done on computer would lose. Also, it's not like you have to replace your phone when you need to replace your credit card #. Chip cards seem quite a bit more inconvenient than non-chipped cards at least with the chip readers they've started using in the US. Non-chip is a quick swipe interaction vs the chip card has to stay in the length of the transaction processing which for some reason even the non wireless readers take up to a minute to complete.