Well it's true that getting a big mortgage to buy a property that appreciates well has paid off for some people but it can be a high risk strategy.
Property values don't always increase and if you end up in negative equity, that could turn tens of thousands of pounds of deposit into a similar amount of debt - when we bought our first house, the people we bought it off had paid £8k more for it two years earlier and spent money doing it up. Now that might not sound like a lot of money, but that was more than my annual salary at the time.
Buying and selling can involve high costs - stamp duty and estate agents/solicitor's fees etc that are 'lost'. There's no help with paying a mortgage if you lose your job, so you need expensive insurance or savings to fall back on.
If you rent, it's a lot easier to move if you need to and you might qualify for help with housing costs depending on circumstances. Renting can be 'dead money' but how does that compare with mortgage interest?
I don't think it's beneficial to compare with other people especially when not accounting for any detail such as life stage, income, family size etc. Too many variables makes it meaningless, you just need to make the best of your own circumstances.