I can't remember the last time my signature on an electronic signature machine actually looked anything like my signature. Plus, I don't actually sign it half the time.
Your argument of being able to see the signature and "prove" that it wasn't yours is flawed. If you lose your credit / debit card and your bank account is drained, you have the obligation to report it stolen to the police (within a short period of time after the incident). Usually you'll know that your card is lost within 24 hours. And you usually know what your last activity was. So if you report it to the police, you're going to likely be just fine.
This article is a bit too pranoid for reality for me. Yes, banks are going to probably hassle you to ensure that you're not trying to defraud them. No, you shouldn't have all of your money connected to a single account / pin.
Just Be Smart. Always hide your PIN number. Do you flash your Social Security Number (or your country's equivalent) all over the place? No, because it's private. And because it's highly valuable. Keep the same level of security for your pin and you'll be fine.
Yeah, you cannot wait for a month in either case, but for example in my Nightclub example, it is really easy to just charge another drink in my absence. Risk for the nightclub is 0 using the PIN, as you do not get a SMS for that charge... in either case I am convinced that the risk with PINs is worse for the customer.
I know in Europe, people don't let restaurant employees (or bartenders) take their credit / debit cards away from the table. All (most) of the Chip Readers are mobile, so they bring the reader to the table for you and you put in your pin / any tip amount yourself, using the Chip Reader.
I think that if the US moves in the same direction as Europe, we should have the same options / Chip Readers here. Europe has been using Chip Readers (with pins) for much longer than the US and have been fairly successful (from what I hear). It's been at least 6+ years that I know of, since my first visit across the Atlantic, and they were using the mobile chip readers for a while before I traveled there.
There isn't a way for you to set up alerts for PIN transactions? That sounds like a great area of opportunity for your bank. I'd send them a suggestion / complaint about that.