Indeed the credit freeze is a simple no-brainer. And it’s not mutually exclusive with any other action. Most people don’t realize credit freezing should be a default way of operating. Particularly in a system where you don’t have control over your data. Banks ToS vaguely say “you agree we can share your data with any credit reporting agency”. They typically don’t even name the credit bureau so you don’t have transparancy or control. Your blunt instrument is the choice to open the bank acct, or not.

The best theoretical option would be to open an asset acct that disallows credit and then does not stick a fucked up credit bureau in the mix. Consumers are not smart enough to demand that and so I don’t believe any bank offers that.

It’s much harder to move, change ssn, etc.

Yes, but it’s not either or. You can make the data stale while also freezing your credit.