It's frustrating how the US is the only country I travel to where I cannot use my non American NFC cards. Half the terminals I encounter really only accept apple pay or a form thereof.
At this point it's amazing the number of terminals with chip capabilities which aren't even enabled
Huh. Contactless cards effectively don't exist in the US, but I'd expect any Apple Pay-compatible system to accept your card as well. Sounds like its more foreign bank issues (eg, the banks can't agree on rules) than a technology issue. NFC is NFC.
European banks have been able to allow cross-border operations for decades. The "banks can't agree on rules" is mostly an american problem.
NFC is not NFC. The US NFC often is MSD and not EMV. Also many terminals explicitly only permit Android and Apple Pay. Not a general issue. I used my cards in many other countries, only ever an issue in the US.