When you send or receive mony electronically, the money is in limbo for a period of time. The money leaves the payer’s account and sits in the bank’s own account where the bank earns interest. After some time, the money eventually finally moves into the recipient’s account. That limbo time is quite profitable for the bank. Banks maximise that limbo time to the full legal extent.
So when you send or receive money electronically, you show your love for the bank and the bank loves your patronage. Don’t like banks? Stop being lazy and go back to paper cheques. And of course it’s better to cash them rather than deposit them.
Paper cheques keep the money in the posession of the payer up until the cheque is presented. At that moment, cash is paid to the recipient. There is no profitable limbo time in this case.
This came up in this comment but thought it should have a separate thread. We are losing our right to autonomy (paper cheques) because addiction to every slight bit of convenience is is taking a toll.