Maybe tech debt could use a car repair metaphor. Instead of "our car is a rusty jalopy that we dearly love if maybe someday we should wash it for show (i.e. improvement is arrogance & cosmetics)", tech debt is "we drilled multiple holes into the oil pan because we didn't know what we were doing. We can still drive the car for a while."
I don't know, taking tech debt serious means owning up to a mistake, or having made a trade off that looks the same as a mistake.