Is debt worth taking on to finance flight school or would saving up beforehand be better?

I’m young, (about to finish HS) and it’s my dream and want to become a career pilot but I have the expectation that I need to finance myself the whole way. I understand the risks of debt and funding programs, but in other people’s experiences: was a loan to get certs and school done faster and with less schedule worries better than saving up for a couple years safely? And how many career pilots started out in a different career?

And then as a side note, are there really so many civilian pilots that had their parents pay their whole way through? One of my friends told me his parents want to fund his whole career path and I couldn’t even imagine my parents saying something like that to me unless it was college.