wayside

I've been accepted to a handful of two-year MA programs in my field in the humanities, though (unsurprisingly) without any funding at all of them. I've narrowed my two preferences down to two of the strongest, one an Ivy and one an Oxbridge. I have some debt ($20k) from undergrad and would be taking out more loans for the MA, though my parents have generously offered to contribute to my living expenses and my loan payoff, which lessens the financial burden significantly. My goal is to get a PhD and eventually go into academia, as unadvisable as that may be. I was hesitant to apply for PhD programs this year for two reasons: firstly, many of the ones I was interested in had paused admissions for this year; secondly, I felt at the time that I should be applying to PhD programs with a finished BA thesis in-hand, which I was not even halfway done with when the deadlines hit. Now, I've completed a thesis that I'm quite proud of, but I'm still unsure of whether it's strong enough to apply directly to PhD programs; my hope would be that an MA would make me significantly more competitive than I am now. Part of me is tempted to take a gap year and apply for a fully funded PhD program for Fall 2022, but another part of me thinks I would be a fool to let these opportunities slip away. I know these programs are infamous "cash cows," but is there ever a reason to go? Is this bird-in-hand situation? Would I be better off applying for PhD programs next year than starting an MA this fall? I've got just over a week to decide and I'm absolutely stuck!