Note that, once again, this is about small businesses generally, not startups. These reports from the Kauffman Foundation ought to come with a warning label attached.

"Startups that lean too much on credit cards are more likely to fail" is the very first line of the article. It seems like they're speaking specifically about startups.

That is exactly the problem. They give the impression they're writing about startups; they may even believe it themselves; but this data is based on a random cross-section of new small businesses. They explicitly mention "coffee shops" as an example.