That is what I notice as well. A good number of merchants do accept Bitcoin, but that doesn't change the market dynamics of Bitcoin for better as it is just funneled back as a sale into the market through Bitpay etc.
It does change the market dynamics, because more merchants will exchange their goods for bitcoin. It's just not progressive. Most still rely on intermediaries, which is the situation we were trying to avoid in the first place.
I'm afraid that there are two causes:
- Merchants want immediate conversion to fiat, which can't be done if they do self-custody.
- Potentially mistaken interpretation of some legislation. Doing self-custody electronically is, no doubt, a brand new thing, which might sound too good to be legal.