[illwrks]

...continuing to cook meal after meal in the same kitchen, but never cleaning up, or washing a pot or pan.

It might be manageable for a day or two but very quickly you will suffer and probably give yourself food poisoning.

[muzani]

At some point, the cooks start stabbing people or become strangely insistent on burning the whole kitchen down.

[marto1]

Brilliant analogy!

I speculate confusion about the term originally came from the word “debt”. For a layman it tends to be associated with an extremely narrow definition.

[illwrks]

Glad to have helped! I often get asked to explain things by family and friends so I've got a knack for 'dumbing things down'.