> do we need to go to protect people from their own stupidity

Speed limits, casino rules, food ingredients legislations, weapon and gun legislation… depending on where you live the cursor is between freedom and stupidity protection.

I can easily and happily find alternatives for the exemples you provide. Here in EU the credit (card) culture is way less loanistic: what we call “credit card” are often delayed debit cards and the real credit cards are used by the richest percentiles.