badgerific

I agree with what you’re stating and I hope that that’s where we are headed - there just being man, woman, and non-binary gender identities. For now though, as I see it, cis/trans become relevant in three ways (off the top of my head):

1. Medical situations - self explanatory
2. In pursuance of romantic/sexual relations - society is still at the stage where the visual perception of a person lead to certain presumptions. Not everyone may be okay with dating/having sex with a person who has different genitalia than they presumed that their partner would have.
3. [This point is my personal opinion] The visibility of people openly owning their journey can be a source of information, give courage to others who are undergoing the same journey and are scared or confused. I knew about my orientation way before I realized that there’s a term for it or that their are others like me.

I hope I got your query right.

How do businesses source customers? Especially important for new businesses or new products that customers dont know about.

Given the shift towards online shopping, the businesses can easily provide the necessary information along with the product they are selling. In that case, only those customer who are looking for a specific type of product get to see the information. Retains the necessary elements of advertising & marketing without the unnecessary element of consumerism.