I have no idea where you live, but in my home country (Italy) you have been able to pay with ATM cards for more decades, which means no debt and "pay with money you own".
Debit cards also work the same way.
I also do not understand the obsession with credit cards, but they have some distinctive advantages:
* are more reliably accepted than other means (i.e. no need to convert when abroad, accepted more often than debit cards or ATM cards)
* allow you to make "variable expenses" (i.e. you rent a car with a credit card where if you crash the car you will have to pay X thousand dollars)
* allow you to make large-ish expenses which are difficult with wire transfers (i.e. by that 4K TV Screen while in the shop)
* some places (e.g. Hungary) don't seem to have cheques at all, so either you go outside with a bunch of cash or some expenses (getting that 27" iMac) are really complicated
* not an advantage but: some places (the US?) seem to have a very ingrained culture of personal debt, while others do not
I also do not understand the obsession with credit cards, but they have some distinctive advantages:
* are more reliably accepted than other means (i.e. no need to convert when abroad, accepted more often than debit cards or ATM cards)
* allow you to make "variable expenses" (i.e. you rent a car with a credit card where if you crash the car you will have to pay X thousand dollars)
* allow you to make large-ish expenses which are difficult with wire transfers (i.e. by that 4K TV Screen while in the shop)
* some places (e.g. Hungary) don't seem to have cheques at all, so either you go outside with a bunch of cash or some expenses (getting that 27" iMac) are really complicated
* not an advantage but: some places (the US?) seem to have a very ingrained culture of personal debt, while others do not