> long-term leases as debt, because they are obligations to the business

I don’t think this is how your average reader of this would interpret debt.

When I and most people think of debt they think a negative equity account balance that you pay off to a bank or lender like a mortgage or credit card. Not a 24 month apt lease because no equity is being exchanged.

In part because of the reason OP said which was severability which isn’t something you can do with owed debt.

Graebers debt demonstrates that this is the most common way to think about it.