>> barely says anything about private sector money creation

It opens with the words "Money is created in the Canadian economy in two main ways: through private commercial bank loans..."

the introduction continues "... It also discusses how private commercial banks create money..."

And then it goes on to do exactly that in detail. I'm struggling to understand why you wrote that.

>> Your view of fractional reserve banking is rather.. unorthodox

Unorthodox is not the word to describe what has at this point been published by most of the central banks in western economies with a sovereign currency. From the Fed to the Canadian central bank, from the Bank of England to the Bundesbank and so on.

We're unfortunately living in a Copernican moment. We now better understand how money works but we're not permitted to say the earth orbits the sun just yet.

It's utterly ludicrous that the idea of Fractional Reserve banking is propagated in today's world as having any relevance to how banking works in these economies.

>> why do banks bother with deposits, then

Very simply - cost of funds