All these people are calling it a crutch are moralizing tongue clicking, holier than thou Calvinists who think you shouldn’t be able to be thin unless you bootstrapped yourself to thinness with your own blood sweat and tears, as though this viewpoint represents some abstract understanding of the world instead of merely a smug sense of self righteousness.
Crutches allow broken legs to heal properly. It could be that some simply don't have that same strong negative connotation.
What is more, getting hung up on the wording is missing the larger point.