Anecdotal, but in SG I recently had to submit ~20 pages of documentation for a permit. Obviously I don't have a printer so this was annoying in itself. Once I took those printed pages to the Rathaus they just scanned all the documents anyway.
Maybe ZH does things better, but I still feel like it's a shame there is not more standardisation. I understand why politically this is difficult though with the independence of the cantons.