I don't think "counting taps" is the point here. Virtually all UX research ever indicates that any friction added to interactions usually means losing customers

I don't think "counting taps" is the point here. Virtually all UX research ever indicates that any friction added to interactions usually means losing customers at the margin. Maybe customers don't cancel the current transaction, but some of them are still going elsewhere next time because they don't want to deal with whatever friction you've inserted.