Also, most all US small to mid sized business transactions are by check.

Why? It is a bank transfer with extra steps. A check can get unreadable, get lost... No one in Germany would write a check for a permit fee or to pay a business partner. You pay online. Fast, safe, can't get lost, easy to proof what, when to whom you have paid for years to come. And the transfer won't get through if you do not have money on your account or are allowed to overdraw, while you can write whatever you want on a check and then run.

It is not cash or check it is bank transfer or check and the bank transfer is the safer, faster option. All they do at a bank is to scan the check and to turn it into the exact same bank transfer it could have been in the first place. All you do is adding a layer of risk by writing on a piece of paper.

I find that really funny, because many Germans still refuse to buy their groceries without cash, many like me do not own a credit card only debit cards, but no one younger than 90 uses a check. I am 58 years old and have never owned checks.