> 2. There's no risk of surveillance. Reading data from the chip still requires you to read the MRZ, so you can't do that remotely.

There were many attack on that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passport#Attacks

> There's nothing a chip gives you that you wouldn't get from a normal passport

I think your fingerprints are stored on the chip and not on the printed part.