Consumers are also forced to pay for it, though. The transaction fee in the US is routinely 2-3%, while in the EU it's capped at 0.3%. Because of borderline anti-competitive behaviour from VISA and Mastercard, that fee is also not charged separately to creditcard-using consumers but integrated in the price, so everyone pays for it.
Britain has/had a credit card culture in some ways similar to the USA, and the direct debit system explained in the article is usually used to pay the balance in full every month.
I think that's the same for credit cards in most of Europe. (They exist even if they aren't popular.)
And if I have a dispute with a business, I can have the credit card company reverse the charge for me? If it's debit, that money is gone.
I would never use debit if I could use a credit card. The US system is far superior for consumers.