Nobody is taking anything; they are operating in a free market and making their best choice, which may be to sell the big house and buy a smaller one in a cheaper neighborhood. If they choose instead to impoverish themselves, and they had all the information in front of them, then ok I guess.

But I imagine nobody in their right mind would deliberately go broke when other options were available. I imagine that folks that work hard to convince them to do such things, are not working in their favor.

Patronizing them would be, deciding that a reverse mortgage is always in their best interest.