For what it's worth, I run GrapheneOS and can use my phone to pay for stuff via NFC just like any other phone user. I've used it in various countries and it Just Works™.
To achieve this you just need to find a payment app that works.
This was a question we used to ask during job interviews.
You might want to look into your running processes to see if any still have file handles open for the items that have been removed. lsof can be used to find such things.
Firefox Reader Mode works well for me on that Sun article about Gothenburg -- but I do block a lot of nonsense on the Internet.
Perhaps the ads and tracking code mess with Reader Mode on an unfiltered page?