Bitcoin is different because nobody ever owes you and you don't owe anybody else, once the payment has been sent then it's final, no chargebacks to worry about and less likely or close to impossible to be a fraudulent transaction.
Actually, if blockchains are allowed not allowed to be full for an extended length of time and transaction pools are not allowed to forget transactions and all transactions are eventually confimed, we have instant payments with zero confirmations although they carry a level of economic risk. This risk can be reduced further with a simple double spending proof:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3819
https://bitcoinclassic.com/devel/Double%20Spend%20Proofs.html
Even a transaction that has 1 confirmation on it is not without economic risk. It could be undone by a chain re-organisation if a longer chain emerges. Most transactions are considered safe after 6 confirms, as the chain re-organisation risk at this level is considered extremely unlikely.
The Ferrari dealership might want 100 confirms like a newly minted block before they give you the keys to the car you just bought. Joe Sixpack, landlord of the local pub, would probably be happy accepting a zero confirmation payment because since he will just bar you if you try to rip him off. The latter scenario would probably be better served by an lightning network if you are on a big piss up for the night, as long as you can afford to move your funds into an on chain account to open the channel.