Tom Barry wrote:

One of the things I like about bendies is that I can touch in at my
leisure once I'm on the bus, which is good if you run to catch one, as you
don't then stand panting in the front doorway trying to remember which
pocket the Oyster is in while people grumble behind you.

I don't doubt there are some advantages. But there are many drawbacks and
what the balance is is pivotal here.

Along with the astonishingly fast loading* and boarding passengers not
getting mixed up with people coming down the stairs to disembark, of
course.

Try the scrum when a packed bendy reaches a busy stop and people are
clambering over each other to get on or off...

Even a relatively empty double decker suffers from that, so heaven knows
what the 38 will be like on the first week after debendification. It's
high time a realistic look was taken at this subject, particularly if you
ever believed anything Andrew Gilligan wrote on the subject.

I have never read much by Gilligan on this issue. I base my own opinions on
experience of the 25 before and after bendification, and on the local
reaction, especially on the section where a double-decker is also available.

Try a bendy bus on a diversion into a residential side-street and you'll see
the chaos up close.