You can’t compare it with a house mortgage.

They had X in earning potential in a set time frame.

The debt accumulated was X + Y.

After the restructuring the public were left as bagholders of the ”+ Y” since it would be impossible to pay it off reasonably under the current framework.

A new framework was created where this stranded debt was paid off as a forced separate line item on everyone’s bills.

In other words. They were bankrupt, if the state hadn’t stepped in then they would not have been able to amortize the debt in the expected timeframe.