Even if they aren't obligated to repay, they have to in practice because it'll impact their ability to get loans in the future. If the shell company declares bankruptcy and gets the loans off Meta's books no one will ever loan money to Meta again.

They would still be able to get loans, but the terms would be much worse.

Basically, if we’re reading about it from substacks and Matt Levine’s newsletter then it’s already fully common knowledge in the finance world.

Eh, debt investors have short memories. They buy 100 year bonds from Argentina, for fuck's sake. It might limit Meta's ability to do this SPV trick.