I think you're right. It is superior, but only if both sides (merchants and consumers) adopt at the same time.

This reminds me of a classic "coordination failure" from game theory, in which two parties fail to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement, because it's only beneficial if they both move together, and if one side moves on their own they'll be worse off. Without some way to coordinate the joint movement, they won't be willing to move unilaterally.

Example is electric cars and charging stations. They both need to be adopted together. No one will want to buy electric cars unless they know there will be plentiful charging stations; no one will want to build charging stations unless they know there will be a lot of electric cars. Some kind of coordination needs to be done, like subsidies, to get both sides to move forward together.