>>The Mark really will be a mark!
Why do you think that is a certainty?
Revelation is filled with specific events such as hundred pound hail stones falling down, two witnesses hampering the beast and his system for 3.5 years.(you can’t “oversymbolize” those events from their context) That and the actual translation of the term “mark” meaning a marking or branding of the skin.
There are historic parallels such as the Nazi’s branding the Jews in the concentration camps or forced to wear yellow stars on their clothing.
I believe it will be an actual visible mark as opposed to to the “seal” God puts into the foreheads of his saints (Revelation mentions this as well) who are on the Earth.
The scorpion creatures sting all those who have the mark, by context we know that there must be those without the mark upon the Earth that the scorpions don’t sting.