I can't remember the exact dates, but the Wayfarer 6 machines arrived at Burnley and Blackburn around the same time as contactless was announced it was going to be rolled out on the 36 in Harrogate. Quite a bit of fuss was made that the new Wayfarer machines were 'contactless ready' and could handle contactless payments without too much fuss.
Wayfarer 6 can handle contactless payments, but it requires a separate card reader to be installed, similar to the Oyster pads in London. Arriva North East initially used Wayfarer 6 with the separate card reader for contactless, they were the first Arriva division to try contactless, but it was and is clunky compared to the integral machines offered by Vix and Ticketer. As it was a right fanny on using contactless as a passenger on Arriva, I can't imagine the back end was any better.
The trouble was, the Wayfarer way was "too much fuss" compared to integral machines. And Transdev ended up caught in a bind: there's no point investing in the extra card equipment if you're intending to ditch Parkeon as soon as you can, but without the extra equipment you look behind the times.
Arriva North East bit the bullet and replaced their Wayfarers with Ticketers when the rest of Arriva went down the Ticketer route, but AIUI it cost them.
If anything, I'd say Parkeon got caught dozing at the wheel a little compared to Zix and Ticketer but, equally, you still need a Wayfarer 6 to run the systems you need in London. And it was London that drove contactless in the first place. As
@TheGrandWazoo says, hindsight is always 20/20.