Hmm that might very well be, and it's also why it feels a bit too forced to me, but to be fair most of the issues every other LI has is either teenager level kind of issue, insecurity, cheating partner or something "shady" like in the case of Bella (who I think has no real positive outcome sadly), I can't see anyone of them as main character in a story.
Meanwhile Maya's troubles are the ones that make for a compelling "hero journey" and are actual serious troubles (dying mother, more and more deranged father...), imo for her the real issue is not the loan, as I stated already, plenty of people had to make do, I paid my studies on my own, 2nd of 3 siblings and not from a rich family, but some issues one has really no way to sort them, terminally hill mother? How do you fix that? You need to grow through pain and learn to live it with it (that's a hero journey on itself).