I agree with your broader message (stimulus checks were important to a lot of people's survival and they weren't just "free money" for people to play with) but

I agree with your broader message (stimulus checks were important to a lot of people's survival and they weren't just "free money" for people to play with) but consider that the American population is huge and even a minority of stimulus check receivers could have had an influence on certain aspects of the economy if their behaviour was similar. For every person struggling (and for whom the stimulus was necessary to their survival) there's a person who was getting by just fine and thousands of dollars is a windfall that could radically change their short-term financial behaviour.