That's all true, but it's not addressing the parent's question of why Americans have to artificially "build credit" while Europeans don't. Presumably all that applies in Europe and yet they don't have to jump through the same hoops.
I'm in the UK, which is part of Europe, and we do have to build credit here.
Permission to rent, in the nicer places, is contingent on credit ratings, and so is the interest rate you will be charged for a mortgage, as well as getting access to one at all.
So it affects access to housing, and is quite important.
(Unfortunately the credit reference agencies maintain files with a lot of credit-harming errors in them. Sometimes even fictitious, unpaid/overdue transactions will appear, in fictitious credit accounts. Even obtaining a new phone contract can harm your credit rating temporarily - it affected mine a lot when I took out 3 new data SIM contracts. I think most people don't check their files, but they should, and then correct the harmful errors.)
I think the housing dependency on credit rating in the UK has become considerably more onerous in recent years, since the "credit crunch".
According to a bank I spoke with, it also affects whether you can be a director of a company, because banks want to know the directors of any company that holds a business account with them, and they can decline to provide account services if a director has a sufficiently poor credit record.
Because in some countries your "credit" is only the bad things (unpaid debt) whereas in America (and other places) your "credit" includes both the bad things and the good things too. So its in your best interest to add good things.
In other words, you're able to prove you're conscientious to entities who will give you some benefit for being conscientious.
I think the major difference between the US and european countries in this regard is due to role of the goverment in society.
A good example is "financiele curatele"[0]. This is a system where people (usually after either massive debt isssues or other issues which result in "mentorschap"[0]) lose their right to make their own financial decisions, and a curator handles the finances for said person until either the debt is repayed or indefinitely (the latter usually happens with untreatable mental illness).
