I've worked for a heavy customer of Plaid, and I've experienced the good and bad side of said entities and architectures, and the propaganda used by both sides. Banks say "impersonate", Plaid says something else. I think a reasonable viewpoint could say that you are authorizing Plaid to act on your behalf. Would a bank punish a rich person for having their accountant/finance manager know their credentials and use them in their duties? Would a bank publicly punish someone for storing their bank password in a password manager? How about an online password manager?