I live in Northern Europe and I've never heard of anyone using Paypal for anything other than paying for things online. Each country has their own specific service that the majority uses (MobilePay, Siirto, Swish, etc).
Does Germany not have fast bank transfers? In the UK, people used to use PayPal for this until the Faster Payments system came in, which meant that you can instantly transfer money to anyone with a UK bank account via your normal banking app.
I think it technically takes 24-48 hours to clear, but that doesn't tend to be an issue in practice. You'll get the push notification telling you the money has arrived and your balance will update in seconds.
You have fast transfers in Germany, but it is new, an extra box to tick, normal online banking is horrible UX and you have to know the IBAN of the account. Giving someone my email is way easier.
Plus it costs extra and many banks don't support it.
It's a mess.
I wish this was faster, imagine paying online by scanning a QR code with your banking app. There would be non risk of chargebacks for merchants and fees could be basically zero.
In my country (in EU) everyone uses it. Friends, colleagues, family, everyone. That part is great. But the app sucks. I wish PayPal would fix their app. Animations are buggy, it's slow (not really slow but slow enough to show a loading spinner every time) and navigating through the app is hard.
I did have to use Paypal recently to pay for HBO Max, because they would not accept debit cards for whatever reason, and I lost my patience with their support. You are right, the Paypal app is really bad.
You should give Wise and/or Revolut a try. The apps are way better, and probably one of the best features both have is virtual cards (Revolut has also a one-time card that is automatically destroyed after use). Note that you also get physical cards with both.
I think Revolut has a few more features that Wise lacks, like travel and device insurance, but for the financial part, the features are nearly identical. Also, currency exchange rates are way better than traditional banks.
EDIT: Ok, maybe just in Germany.
And just to be clear: Paypal is an adverse company that tries to trick its users on every page.