You and I don't know the same people. I use a credit card for everything and pay it off at the end of the month. I know nobody who uses a debit card like that unless their credit cards are maxed out.
This sentence is the epitome of marketing brainwashing in the US. Not trying to single you out, as we all suffer it to different degrees here, but this sentence kind of puts it in such a nice little box.
What's a reward? What actions warrant such gifts? Why don't they just give you money instead of "points"? At any point, does the gameification of debt strike any of us as one of the most abhorrent MBA ideas in history? It's right up there on the list, sitting below indentured servitude and for-profit prisons.
This gets repeated, but it's not true everywhere. Some banks may not care or maybe it's harder in some countries. But for example in the UK I could easily revert a few £k the same day without issues. I'd love to read more about where the differences come from, but the blanket statement is not 100% correct.
It always depends, so do your own research, but as far as I understand, it is still considered decent general advice to tell people to prefer credit cards over debit cards. They will build credit, earn rewards, have excellent consumer protection from fraud, increase the distance between their purchases and the cash in their bank account, and so on.
The closer you are to 'living pay check to pay check' the easier it is to get you into this. And I suppose for some people it takes multiple larger purchases to get you into it. Popular culture, TV shows, Twitter nowadays etc. don't help and 'legitimatize' it (everyone's talking about it that way, so everyone must be doing it that way, so it's OK to do it that way).
You might be good at "paying it off at the end of the month". A lot of people easily slip into credit card hell that way, because they _can't_ pay it off at the end of the month, because they didn't realize how much of their credit they should really be using. Credit card says you have $2000? Let's spend $2000. At the end of the month I only have $1500 left in my account? Oh crap!
Personally I pay it off in sort of regular intervals, since it's all right there in my online banking. I've never waited for a "credit card bill", even when they still sent them to me in actual dead tree form.
I use my credit card for the purchase buffer the other mentioned, and I've set it to the exact amount is taken from my bank account on the due date.
I also track my expenses and categorize it, so I have a clear idea what's happening in the budget.
The points for regular spend, the sign up bonuses, and the interest savings (the average balance on my card ends up saving me interest on my mortgage) put me well ahead.
Credit cards are a solid because many (most?) people use them poorly, but it's certainly possible to use them wisely.