You tell a story about how you encountered debt collectors using you to look for someone else, then immediately say the easy way to avoid them is not to get into debt? Do you not see the obvious contradiction here?
That I shouldn't post about debt on the Internet until I've purged all association with people in debt? Help me out here.
No, that from your own story, avoiding debt doesn't necessarily mean you avoid debt collectors.
Many of the complaints against debt collection practices are coming from people who aren't debtors, but are being harrassed because they have a phone number that's changed hands or have been misidentified. That's not something one can avoid by not buying things, and for people who've been the victim of this sort of harrassment, it's a big deal and a reason to hate the industry.