> If someone steals your car, you've lost your car. If someone 'steals' your identity, you haven't lost it.

Valid. Imagine it's a car you never use, didn't care for and won't replace. The inconvenience of being proximate to a crime is what I'm getting at.

> it shouldn't be my responsibility to prove I didn't take a loan, but instead the bank's responsibility to prove that I did once I make the claim

I know only one person who went through full-blow identity theft. Most of the consequence was in halting creditor actions. They weren't proving they didn't take out the loan as much as disqualifying attempts to seize their stuff. What made it stressful was there being no way to know when you're out of the woods.