Sometimes a gift becomes a debt, but how can someone say "Now I can't leave" after their partner gives them a huge gift?
This can't be. Something has to stop you. I understand that you feel that way; sometimes receiving big gifts makes you feel guilty, but you're an adult. Something has to stop you from saying that.
That said, yes. There is no such thing as a completely free gift. Giving, receiving, and reciprocating are not merely gestures of generosity. Even if you do it unconsciously, you always expect some form of reciprocation from the other person, and the other way around: when you receive a big gift, you feel indebted.
A gift can be free in the financial sense but very expensive emotionally. While it's beautiful to be helped by someone who loves us, it can also feel very demanding when we feel that we are obliged to reciprocate the energy for the rest of our lives, especially if it's a very expensive gift, which is the type of gift that creates these feelings.
I'm not saying that every gift is in itself a manipulation tactic, or that the person who gifts you something is trying to exercise control over you. I'm saying power dynamics can emerge without anybody trying to consciously create them.
We should consider if our generosity leaves room for the other person's autonomy. And we should only accept gifts that don't make us feel permanently indebted to the other person.
Likewise, we should always know that we can walk away from any relationship no matter how many things the other person has gifted us, because even though these subconscious pressures exist, the gifts you receive didn't come with a contract.
If we feel the other person is trying to keep us by their side using gifts, that is definitely a red flag, and it obviously doesn't mean we should stay by their side.
Still, it's nice to accept a gift and to accept help. If we can move past the feelings of guilt, we can get to a place of understanding that even if we never reciprocate the energy to the other person, it's fine, and it's nice to learn to give and take while expecting less.
Gifts should keep existing. I don't think the answer to this is to stop giving gifts entirely. Or that you should get so paranoid about what they mean that you stop enjoying making people happy or accepting a gift from time to time.
Perhaps the point is not to eliminate the obligations that come with gifting, but to become more conscious of them, so we don't end up reciprocating things we wouldn't naturally reciprocate, or giving something just because we want the other person to give us something back.
We can allow our gifts to become expressions of our affection and nothing more, and understand that others can give us those expressions of affection as well. After all, the beauty of a gift is that someone thought of us, and that's always beautiful to know.