Obviously I don't have statistics on the people I talk to at that age, but to get a sense of the scope of the problem, 6,100,000 people are behind on payments. https://educationdata.org/how-many-people-have-student-loans

Sure but 85% of those have loans less than $50,000 and those that have more have entry levels salaries of $200,000 usually.

That seems rather small for such a huge debating point?

It would if it were true. But in reality, there are lots of people with $40k starting salary jobs (example: a librarian, which requires a masters degree!) paying off $50k loans with 8% interest rates.