The problem with saying "technical debt" in these situations is it makes you look unserious. If you use "technical debt" to mean "a problem we didn't realize would be there when we made this decision" it makes you look like you take on debt without reading term sheets.
tldr: the core argument here is that debt in the technical sense means something slightly different from debt in the business sense and that somehow makes developers look unprofessional. So rebrand tech debt to messiness.
Imo: Being a messy worker doesn’t look more professional though… This is a lot of words about someone’s pet peeve, and they should probably keep looking for a better alternative. You want to make the idea of tech debt more palatable to smooth brained c suites who can’t understand what tech debt means? Look towards concepts like restructuring, adopting more efficient methodologies, process improvement, or risk management. Mess though… that’s the least serious sounding suggestion of them all.