Greentexts, memes, everything 4chan.
By "arbitrarily take on debt for years", are they referring to myth that you need to carry a balance on a credit card to help your credit score?
If you aren't aware, that is very much incorrect. All you're doing is lining the pockets of the credit card company. Pay your credit card statement in full each month and don't carry a balance to avoid paying interest.
There are certain exceptions, but I'm considering them out of scope for this case.
Your "score" is only there to sell you more score. This is the side effect of being able to access your own credit history (how very generous of them)
Every lender has their own criteria, and uses your credit history to generate their own score.
Unpopular opinion, not really opinion but...
Credit score system is designed for the people with money to allow you to borrow that money. It's based on a curve system so... If your at the bottom of the list is because 99% of the population is better than you at learning how to play the score system. Tldr: the score system was not designed with me in mind.
I don't know if it works differently in the US but the best way to build your credit score is to not take on debt.
Keeping your credit utilization low and not missing any payments is the key. It's an indication of how likely you are to meet the payments.
If you max your credit cards out and just pay the minimum amount, carrying thousands of dollars of debt and as a result can't get a mortgage or a car loan because your credit score is shit then the system is working as expected.