They can be less convenient, yes, but a situation where you need truly public keys is probably not that secure to begin with. If you’re just trying to talk to your friends from your tree house, symmetric encryption is completely practical, including using something like DUKPT for forward secrecy.
You mean symmetric keys? They’re great, but they aren’t terribly practical in MANY application scenarios.
They can be less convenient, yes, but a situation where you need truly public keys is probably not that secure to begin with. If you’re just trying to talk to your friends from your tree house, symmetric encryption is completely practical, including using something like DUKPT for forward secrecy.
A banking website?