There's been normalization around using rent as additional inputs into a credit score: https://www.cnbc.com/select/your-rent-payments-can-raise-you...

I'm not sure they're all that available or popular (they're highly dependent on your landlord having the correct paperwork and such) but the place I rented an apartment last year had this available and it did get reported

Yes, that's been a push for a while. I'm glad to see it's becoming more popular. But it doesn't work if unless the landlord opted into their payment system.

That's such a strange system if common routine things aren't counted towards your score. Is this a ploy to get you to buy things you don't need just to prove you can pay it back?

Personally I've never owned a credit card, I always pay with a debit card or cash. 20 years ago I refused to participate in the credit scoring system and still stand by it.

I don't think it's a ploy. I think it's an accident of how the people who designed the credit score used credit. And then inertia keeping things from being updated.

It's messed up because rent could be let's say $800 to $3,500 a month, if paying that every month on time isn't an indicator that you have consistent income to reduce risk on other loans then I don't know what is. It's especially messed up if the same system will ding your score if you buy $8 headphones and forget a payment.

Things are slowly being updated. And rent not being included is a pretty big error that needs fixing.

Last time I got a loan they asked me about my rent/mortgage (and utility!) payments so they could subtract that amount from my take-home pay when determining the risk of me defaulting on the loan. They seemed to assume I'd be paying my rent first and consistently regardless of any other debts I'd accrued.

I think that's a valid assumption. That's also why it's easier to get a mortgage on your primary house instead of an investment property.