They ask for PIN too but that's a different limit ($20 by default but also configurable). The limits I mentioned block payments for the day if not confirmed.
never heard of banks using the NFC directly
Really? I've never heard of Garmin Pay. 😄 But that's the whole point of the NFC chip being open on Android, so apps can use it directly. On iPhone it's an artificial limitation imposed by Apple so they can take their cut from payments and have a processor monopoly. On Android any app can just do it — not only banking apps and not only payments, the NFC can be used for lots of things like opening doors etc. There are apps like meal tickets that can issue payments, gym apps and so on. Giving that up and going with Google is extremely narrow sighted.