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This new account has already posted more than one uncivil comment to HN. That usually signals trollage, so I've banned it until we get some indication that you've read the guidelines and want to use HN as intended. If you have and do, you're welcome to email us at hn@ycombinator.com.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

People like to trade up houses or refinance these days. It’s not at all unusual to reach retirement with a mortgage still in play.

It doesn't work that way anymore, so I'm not sure what world you live in; there are banks that provide indefinite mortgages which leave you literally paying nothing but interest and never principal.

There are certainly mortgages which only require the payment of the interest, rather than the principal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest-only_loan

But even with interest-only mortgages you don't pay indefinitely - either a) you switch to paying down the principal after a specific number of years or b) the loan-balance becomes due.