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Raising the Contactless limit is further eroding the security EMVCo worked so hard to implement.

To say that it's to "level the playing field with digital wallets" is nonsense. Mobile wallets (Apple Pay / Google Pay) use 2-factor authentication such as a PIN or biometric, which is why they allow higher value transactions. Straight contactatless has no cardholder authentication - it you find/steal someone's wallet you can spend until the limit is reached or the card is blocked. 

All this change is going to achieve is to increaase the amount of money lost to fraud, and encourage scumbags to steal wallets and purses - because the rewards are going to be higher!

EMVCo should note that TapToMobile is a registered trade mark of NMI. 

The solution to most of these is to implement Strong Customer Authentication, in the form of 3D-Secure. It's what has been mandated in Europe for a while now and cardholders are used to it. 

I've never understood why financial authorities in the US are so reticent about implementing measures  proven to reduce fraud, crime and card miuse. Chip and PIN is a great example. The US has EMV cards, sure, but the one single thing that makes EMV work perfectly is PIN! And the US banks stopped short of mandating it for credit card transactions... Talk about a missed opportunity!

And what does a merchant do when a customer's payment card has used up it's "number of contactless transcations" limit and they don't have an alternative card? (And don't say use pay by text or link or QR code, because they're not card-present transaction methods).

And how does it get deployed in the US where banks prohibit deployment of contactless-only terminals?

And what do you do when your customer becomes so frustrated at tapping and wiping and swiping because your Android phone is to weak to read an NFC card?

Currently it's a flawed technology, and not fit for mainstream commerce.