In Google's case, yes - access to transaction data is absolutely part of the plan. Apple explicitly set their system up so they don't get that data though.

NFC payments don't have to involve smartphones, but look at what Apple Pay gets you:

- Biometric auth - one-time numbers generated for each transaction - multiple cards in one place - hides your info from the vendor (and apple for that matter)

Those are pretty nice things to get from something that lets me ditch my wallet...