That's also the argument for payday loans and subprime lending. I have yet to hear of a poor person's life being improved by by access to credit at 20% interest, aside from the circular argument that easy access to credit inflates prices for everyone to the point where if you take the 20% interest loans away poor people actually won't be able to pay in cash and will demand it back because that's easier than demanding higher wages.
At a certain point you're just asking the consumer "how much are you wiling to suffer before you go without? Let's find out."
I’ve read a more nuanced take of payday loans that makes sense to me. The counterfactual is no loans/credit/banking, not the more legitimate banking and credit services that upper middle class Americans enjoy.
“Would you rather have these services or no services” is how I heard it once.
At a certain point you're just asking the consumer "how much are you wiling to suffer before you go without? Let's find out."