> Example: for employed people, going into (or avoiding) debt generally won't affect their yearly wages, but analogously it can for countries

While I do agree that personal finances are a bad analogy for state finances, that is not an illustrative example as to the reasons. An employed person can absolutely improve their yearly wage by going into debt, be it for investing in education to aspire to better paying positions, buying a car which increases their employment catchment area, or even —for a flexible definition of wage— investing in setting up a business.