I don’t know what to get you and prefer something better targeted than cash. Tell me what you want, what you really really want, and you might get that instead

— if you complain again, I’m writing you a check: tell me how inconvenient that is

When I was a kid I remember my grandparents would just put $50-$100 in a card and call it a day. I loved the gift of just money because the possibilities of what I could buy myself were endless. It made more sense for my grandparents too as they had no idea what kids my age wanted anyway and I would've likely been disappointed if they tried to buy me what they thought I wanted.

For whatever reason now though, it's seen as lazy or uncaring if you just gift money. I would argue that this is some bs corporations have created to get us to feel obligated to buy an actual item. In my mind though, money is the best gift.

On a related note, my parents bought us a $100 giftcard one year and when we went to us it we discovered that there was a slip of paper covering the barcode. That slip of paper had a photocopy of another barcode on it, so when my parents put money on the card, it actually went on a different card. Pretty common scam we found out. When we called the stores help line, they said they could not help us. So yeah fuck giftcards. The companies themselves won't even take steps to ensure they are secure. As long as they still got their money, they don't care if scammers got to use the giftcard instead.

Depending on where you live, gift cards legally can’t expire. They only become worthless if the company goes out of business.

The rest of what you said I agree with

Gift cards are cheaper than cash. Many places will give you a bonus gift card for purchasing a large gift card, or give you one at higher-than-cash value for trade-ins.

When I had Netflix I registered it with a gift card.

It comes down to discomfort in giving people cash gifts. Agree that it’s stupid.

I will go a step further and say that in most cases, gift giving just destroys value. Exception for little kids, who derive a modicum of enjoyment from whatever plastic crap you give them.

They could be purchased en mass at a discount. The corporate gift card as a gift, might only cost 70%, and have a rebate if it's never used. Depending on your jurisdiction it may not count as income either, reducing HR burden. So it makes financial sense.

They're often sold at a discount to retail customers, to lock them in, a bet that they won't actually use it versus utility somebody gets from a discount. Just like mailing coupon/rebates

It is one of the more practical off-ramps for crypto, you can buy gift cards with crypto, then use those gift cards for real world needs.

In the domain of gifts, if somebody has a spending problem, or a dependency problem, and you want to make sure they buy something in a certain vertical, locked in money as a gift card to make sense. If you give a drunk $50, they're going to buy alcohol. If you give them a $50 gift card to bed bath & beyond, they might actually use it to improve their house

It can also be a form of virtue signaling, a $50 gift card to the air and space museum, or the science museum... Is both a gift of money, but an excuse to go to a new place and do a new thing.

[off topic]

A while back I gave my friend $50 for his birthday. I got fifty 'gold' dollars at the bank and gave them in a drawstring purse [the kind Robin Hood or Conan the Barbarian would carry]

He really enjoyed it.

This won't answer your question directly, but I know in some jurisdictions gift cards or prepaid lunch cards are taxed differently than income and that's why employers often resort to these instead of actual salary raises