I’ve had to get one last three times for USA.
Half a dozen times driven there in last ten years including last year. Mostly Utah. Not one hire company has asked for one but accepted UK licence no problem. I even printed out the special DVLA code thing for hire companies which American ones are supposed to be able to access. They didn’t look at it.
Though I’ve never been stopped by a cop in the States. Though can’t believe they’d insist on the cardboard thing over the photo card.
Only issue I’ve had with photo card is using them for ID and one time had a rather clueless girl in a bar refuse it because she couldn’t understand the dates being the correct way round. Even arguing with her she claimed these must be fake. Her boss came out and laughed.