I don't think the credit score itself is the problem, it's that it's the only thing banks use. There is no discretion for cases where the mode doesn't have enough information.

As one example that has affected me, I moved to the US a year ago. Go to buy a used car last month with bank statements showing a good salary and enough cash to buy the vehicle outright, a check for 1/3 of the car price, and phone numbers of my employer and landlord. All the banks the finance department contacted automatically denied me without looking at the stuff I brought.

I went to my local bank branch thinking a human might help. I got automatically denied, the manager tried to escalate given the information I provided, but I was still denied.

In the end my loan was through the car manufacturer at a fairly high rate.

I realize I am fortunate in that I can afford to take a crappy loan solely to build a credit history and play this silly game. But the way the model is used treats people who are new to obtaining US credit and people who have used credit terribly virtually identically.