3% at restaurants is offset by 3% fee to use cards at restaurants. this benefit is evaporating.

not an argument for or against cards, but they are becoming closer to neutral than a discount.

This is US-specific advice; EU capped merchant fees, and therefore you don't get a free 2% reward at their expense.

The fraud protection and insurance can be useful though.

The "provided" part is the reason I'm staying away from credit cards.

I don't get the down voters, it is, or should be a tool.

Although we are talking about it being an issue. Which you have already covered.

Problem is, most people don't spend that much time thinking about it. So I suspect "don't get a credit card" or "only use it in emergencies" are generally good advice. Although perhaps we should just be better at teaching house hold type finance