You have beautifully drawn a fine line between investment and gambling which is generally difficult to distinguish and people often confuse gambling with investment. The main difference is the risk involved. Investment is done with long term goals like we buy Bitcoin and continue accumulating it during the bear run and this kind of investment is less risky because it is consensus among all analysts, & history has vindicated it again and again, that it always pays off huge rewards to those who believe in its potential to outsmart all other class of assets.
What distinguishes gambling from investing is the people themselves, investing takes a long time to get involved and a strategy is needed in choosing the assets we want to invest. Whereas gambling has a slightly shorter time frame, it generally involves betting fate and having no pattern to follow.
The outline between gambling and investment is different, but in some dimensions they may have similarities in speculation, this closeness makes it difficult for people to distinguish, even though the two are clearly different in practice.
I don't think that banks are offering outdated methods for loans, but they might be offering loan terms that are NOT attractive.. so you have to decide if you believe that it is to your advantage to enter into such loan or not. If the terms of the loans are fixed, then that is much easier to figure out rather than some real estate loans that are offered these days in which the rate is adjustable. Personally, I would NOT enter into any loan that is adjustable.
Slight difference in terms of language, but the point is that banks still offer terms that are so out of date or let's say they are no longer as attractive as you say, speaking of advantages I think are relative, they will not have the same function between each other.
For example, entrepreneurs take loans from banks, meaning they need capital to develop the companies they run and they have reserve capital in case something unexpected happens. Meanwhile, for ordinary people who do not have a spare cost before taking a loan at a bank, it will actually make life difficult when forced to take a loan. Even though in the strategy you want to do, the money will be used for investment.
I choose not to accept any loans, In this case we have the same perception.!!!!