100% spot on.
It's absolutely a scam designed to extract even more wealth from the poors.
No joke, I've had a car dealership tell me they can't sell me the car I want because my credit score was nonexistent (no credit history in 7 years). I was paying in full, in cash, literally in an envelope in my hand.
Grand total of 8k, all in 100s, super easy to count.
But no, I didn't have a "good enough credit score" so I couldn't buy that car from them, despite having the money to do so.
Mental gymnastics on that one.
You're playing by their rules, and it only matters as long as we allow them to not play by the rules.
I bet they'd stop doing it if they got literally ripped into pieces by horses. Or a horse's solar-powered motorized equivalent.