Daily commuters overspending with contactless / PAYGO?

I have been meaning to post this question for years, though it has become less relevant since the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, when working from home was less common, I often wondered why I saw so many 9-5 office workers using contactless payment for their daily commutes during the morning and evening peak. It seemed to me that they must be spending more than the equivalent cost of an annual Travelcard.

Hypothetically, if they only ever traveled to work in Zone 1, their commute might be slightly less than the cost of an annual Travelcard.

However, if you factored in 1-2 weekend return journeys a month, the total would exceed the cost of an annual travel card.

Now, with fare freezes affecting single fares, I admit that the gap between annual Travel card and contactless did narrow, but this only applied to those solely commuting via TfL-LU fares.

If you consider someone who needs to use a bus alongside TfL-LU, and or travels via NR/NR-T fare scales, the gap becomes even more pronounced.

Was the issue that people couldn’t afford the upfront cost of annual or monthly Travelcards? I’ve thought about factors like annual leave, sick days, and the possibility of people going out late a few nights, but these don’t seem to significantly impact the cost-effectiveness of an annual Travelcard. It would only make a difference if someone took a considerable number of days off from traveling or spent a large portion of the week traveling during off-peak hours.

Is there some other factor I am not considering? Or did people genuinely not realize how much they were overspending?