This is not true. Plenty of Europeans have credit cards which work exactly like US credit cards.

The main difference between credit cards in Europe and in the US is that poor people can't get them here.

Let's not pretend that predatory lending is not a thing in at least some EU countries as well, just because it takes other forms (installment payments, buy now pay later etc.), but as a general trend, I'd agree that it's much less common.