Yes, but banknotes alone don't create debt. While commercial banks do borrow money from the central bank, the money the central bank creates is out of thin air. They represent nothing.

Yes, there's lending between the central bank and the commercial banks and yes, there's lending between the commercial banks and the households/businesses, but that doesn't show that the dollar, as a unit represents a "thing", as you put it. All I see is trust from the commercial banks and households/businesses to the monetary policy of the central bank, which is controlled usually by one entity, the government.