The examples you cited are of different nature, most of them are facilities whether you choose to use it or not, is your own choice. Basically the analogy is Apple to Orange to me.

Credit cards are different animal - as a starter, not everyone can get a credit card.

Personally I have no qualm on the surcharge, as long as the merchant does charge less with cash. Those who want to avoid the surcharge can use cash.

In particular, CC is very prevalent in US, even in our neighbor Canada, it is far less prevalent. In Australia and New Zealand, CCs charge quite a hefty fee to own it. CCs ownership in Europe also is quite low comparing to what we saw in US.

Here in US due to the scale and the competition, CC payments are much much more preferred than other forms of payment, hence the merchant fee is kinda moot. However in other parts of the world, merchant fee is a very sticky point, that is why AMEX is very hard to use outside of more expensive restaurants / hotels.

We once had a 3 weeks trip in Italy / West Australia / Hong Kong - I was only successfully used AMEX card to pay for restaurant bills 5 times, granted we dined at local fares even though many of them were in the so-called Mid-Range. Upon return and when my AMEX Gold up for another year, I Xed the card, as our dining out is primarily done on trips which 100% are international, the Gold card is a joke when trying to use it to pay at restaurants in so many places.

Another example is Arco the gas station chain in California has long been only take cash for refill yet their gas is quite a bit cheaper than other brands. There is one of the examples that the merchant chose to pass the saving to the customers.