Confused about California med card process — can someone break this down for me?

[alexford2421]

Bro I've been going back and forth on this for months and I still feel lost honestly
So California passed Prop 64 back in 2016 which legalized recreational but what most people don't tell you is that med patients still get treated completely different at dispensaries. I was reading through the CDPH website last night trying to understand the MMIC program and half of it reads like a government textbook
From what I understand the process is basically:

Get a doctor recommendation
Apply through your county or go the state MMIC route
Start saving on the insane 15% excise tax plus local taxes that rec buyers pay

My main confusion is around the doctor evaluation part. Like do you actually need to go in person or can it be done online these days? My cousin mentioned he did his whole thing remotely but I wasn't sure if that was still legit or some grey area situation
Asked around and a few people in my area said they used My MMJ Doctor for the online evaluation and it was pretty smooth. But again I don't know enough to know if that's a good option or not which is literally why I'm asking here lol
Also saw on the California Attorney General's website that dispensaries are legally required to honor valid med recommendations so that part at least seems straightforward
Has anyone gone through this recently? Especially curious if the online evaluation route holds up at actual dispensaries or if budtenders ever give you a hard time about it
Not trying to overthink this just want to make sure I do it right the first time