What you say is indeed true, but only partly so. The state of affairs would be no different in the corresponding iterative solution. I say 'partly' because you

What you say is indeed true, but only partly so. The state of affairs would be no different in the corresponding iterative solution. I say 'partly' because you could put a break point at the entry point or before the call. One would be able to debug the recursion just as one would debug the corresponding loop.