AFAIK Apple ID doesn't expose your actual card number, so using it over a card has two benefits: 1) no need to grab a card from the wallet, just tap the phone I probably already have in hand 2) privacy
It may not expose it to the employee at the register, but the card number (actually, there are two numbers) is still sent to their merchant bank.
I don't think this is accurate. I'm fairly sure Apple Pay uses tokenization, so the merchant/merchant bank never sees the actual card details. The only party in the transaction who knows the actual card details is the issuing bank.
You are right, I was mistaken. The DPAN is the tokenized card number, and that is the only account number an acquirer will have. My experience seeing both in the auth system log was from the issuer side.
You need a payment card and it still clears through Visa/Mastercard just like any other credit or debit card. In the US we don't have contact-less payment cards though, you have to insert the chip.
> In the US we don't have contact-less payment cards though