I can call an ink pen "a sword". I can even justify this by saying some nonsense like "pens are used to wage war". But if I rush headlong at a Samurai with nothing but a Bic Rollerball, I should not expect to come out of the encounter with all my limbs, much less the expectation of injuring the Samurai. Just calling it "a sword" doesn't mean it has anything to do with an actual sword.

"Tech debt" isn't debt. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the concept of debt. What people mean when they say "Tech debt" is really "I'm putting off work I know I should be doing now, until later, and I'm doing something else instead that I know I'lll need to undo" That's not debt. That's procrastination. That's delaying the inevitable. It ain't debt.

You don't pay off a car loan with procrastination. You don't decide to put off painting your house and then call that a loan.

"Tech debt" has nothing to do with interest, with a lienholder, a creditor, a payment plan, etc. There is nobody to call in the loan. There is no incremental payment. There is no credit. There is nothing whatsoever to do with the entire concept of debt, much less any of the actual practical real-world implications, actions, or actors, behind debt.

Please let's stop perpetuating this cargo cult myth. There is no such thing as "tech debt". There is only compromises and procrastination, and justifying regrettable decisions by pretending there's a good rationale for them. There isn't.