Having cut my driving teeth on manual transmissions over 30 years ago, I came to say the same thing. I am happier with the "connection" I have with an EV than any automatic transmission I have ever driven. As the EV always has the torque I want at any speed, I don't need to move the RPM into the right range to accelerate or engine brake. Oh, and aggressive regenerative breaking so feels like engine braking.

Though I will always be nostalgic for the "whole body experience" that clutch, break/accelerator, transmission lever, and steering wheel provided, I am "satisfied" with the improved connectivity I feel driving an EV vs. an automatic transmission or CVT.

Real question here, couldn't the site just switch to a cryptocurrency to get around this?

It may not be as easy as dollars, euro, or whatever it is operating in now, but wouldn't that work? What am I missing as a finance novice?

Much of the world's economy relies on consumption. In the US much of that consumption happens in the last three months of the year. US shipping is expecting to have between a 4.7 and 5 million packages per day deficit. If retailers can not get goods in stock in October they can not "demand shape" to try to get people to order/buy before the expected shipping peak in November. Long story short, there are going to be some unhappy people that feel they need a gift at Christmas this year. Retailers can't get stock, and once they finally get it they can't ship much of it. This is going to affect the bottom line for many retailers. It could be enough to push some out of business. Causing some people to lose jobs they have had for years. Hopefully, the labor shortage means they will be able to find better-paying jobs quickly.