Has anyone here chosen to rent long term to avoid mortgage debt?

I’ve been thinking about this lately and wanted to see how people here approach it.

A lot of financial advice still pushes homeownership as the goal, but taking on a mortgage is also taking on a pretty large debt for a long time. Some people seem perfectly happy renting and avoiding that entirely.

For anyone here who is focused on living debt free, has anyone intentionally chosen to rent long term instead of buying a home?

If you did, what was the reasoning for you? Lower stress? Flexibility? Investing the difference instead?

And for people who went the other route and bought a house, do you still view the mortgage as acceptable debt, or something you're trying to eliminate as quickly as possible?