An interesting essay I read at some point: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-waste-stream-of-consumer-finance/
Especially the following sentence:
This effectively makes paying consumer debts basically optional in the United States, contingent on one being sufficiently organized and informed.
Now, I don’t know how risky that would be and whether it also applies to student debt, but the system seems to be pretty wild, to say the least.
You are correct, while rereading I also noticed that the essay is specifically talking about consumer debt. And for that it would probably not be helpful to ruin credit scores over a few hundred dollars, if one ever wanted to finance a house or something like that later in their life.