What the heck are you talking about, ive been getting all these benefits "for free". I have never paid a dime to any credit card company. No annual fees, no charges, nothing... I have all the above "totally free". If you have never heard about these things you should do some research.
You absolutely have, you just aren't aware of it. Merchants are charged fees by the CC processors and those are passed onto you, the customer. Don't think you're not paying for that shit one way or another just because you don't see the charge first hand.
You could argue that everything costs 3% more because credit cards, but it's not hard to earn more than that with rewards, so it's kind of a YMMV situation.
I do hate the fact that all my rewards-based trips are basically paid for by other consumers with massive amounts of credit card debt, though.
Huh show me a free credit card the gives 3% cashback which is not a set time or category promo.