The problem with technical debt is, in my experience anyway, that decisions have such a delayed impact that it's difficult for a group of people to understand cost and benefit. To work with the example you gave: You can tell that losing 60% of engineering staff didn't have a negative short term impact. How about 5-10 years later? How fast can the org move at that time vs if they had more staffing and less technical debt?
The whole idea behind the concept is that it _can_ be a good business decision to reduce spending (i.e. new features) and focus on paying off your (technical) debt for a while. It might as well be more important to make progress in the short term, no matter the cost. But the important point is that it's not a technical decision, it's a business decision. And the whole metaphor of technical debt is just one way of moving the conversation to that level.
The whole idea behind the concept is that it _can_ be a good business decision to reduce spending (i.e. new features) and focus on paying off your (technical) debt for a while. It might as well be more important to make progress in the short term, no matter the cost. But the important point is that it's not a technical decision, it's a business decision. And the whole metaphor of technical debt is just one way of moving the conversation to that level.