When inflation > interest rates, saving is a loss making activity. That's the environment we've been in from 2008 until about 2022. You're not wrong and I am the same as you, but we can't blame people for adapting to their circumstances...
Just a few hundred a month could have made you a millionare today through dollar-cost averaging. Deciding not to invest because you think our economy isn't as great as before is a terrible reason not to invest. If you are trying to "time the market" with your retirement account and believing that no time in the past 12 years is a good time, rather than dollar-cost averaging and investing all throughout, you're really screwing yourself over
What inflation > interest implies is that you should try to place your savings in in real assets, i.e., assets that are inflation protected, rather than in assets that just pay interest, such as bonds.
In an inflationary environment, saving up to purchase a house can be an enormous, life-altering financial windfall for those who can do it.
Their parents had defined benefits pensions. Their children have commission free IRA's, 401(k)'s, variable annuities, and a handful of other lesser known alternatives.
They got the 70s and 80s economies to grow up in, and the dot com bubble, GFC, and now a looming recession after many got sucked into some YOLO moonshot plays in the bull market of 2021, upon realizing how much ground they needed to try to make up rapidly. I don't envy their situation.
I'm sure in no rush to pay down my car loan any quicker than is required.