It’s not exactly the same thing because of interest. Give someone $10k in cash and they can choose to buy the toys and not pay down their existing debt, so they

It’s not exactly the same thing because of interest. Give someone $10k in cash and they can choose to buy the toys and not pay down their existing debt, so they’ll still be paying $500 a year in interest (assuming a 5% rate). But if you give the $10k to the lender instead, the person now has $500 more to spend every year in addition to having increased their net worth by $10k.