Cashless automatic pumps that require a deposit are rare
But getting more common. The ED in Oberzissen now have one pump with a payment device and Oberzissen is in the back end of nowhere.
As an almost completely illiterate (in German) English person I prefer the pay at a counter thing because the usually pleasant person behind the counter can just accept the payment. This is good because getting a phone out to translate the instructions often results in an irate German shouting at you.
Probably cos you haven’t been translating fuel pump instructions using a phone…
Which is, to be fair, the only place it has happened to me (hence i prefer counter service)