I think the idea is that you'd have to switch less often.

People can scam you and jerk you around because you don't have options.

If you had options, they might be less inclined

The latter. Big Banks lend to private equity because the profit is good and they are large enough to absorb the variability.

The public hates it because they see highly visible bankruptcies. They don't see the success stories, or the businesses successfully carved up for more value than the sum of their parts

The key terms in this discussion are disposable income and discretionary income.

Housing share if income has outpaced inflation, as have many other categories.

You can simultaneously make more and have less if your income doubles but rent goes from 25% to 50%

I see a lot of risk takers getting wiped out too.

purely academic definistions have a tremendous number of purposes.

Just as it would be silly to define a countries military equipment production capacity by public sentiment, the same is true for purely financial GDP.

There are tons of metrics that can used to articulate how the economy feels for average joe. We have low consumer sentiment, lagging median income, GINI, opinion surveys, ect.

Using the word "recession" adds gravitas by claiming something that isnt true.