My experience is the precise opposite. Engineering tickets with no clear business value rot by the hundreds in sine corner of the backlog, at best being brought up occasionally as an "I told you so" when the business case does rear its head.
In contrast, people working on the code for other reasons will notice a TO-DO and be much more likely to bring it up today, as some kind of "if I'm going to do changes in that area, I should also address this TODO, it will just take an extra $days". Or at least, it will guide them to the source of a long forgotten bug.
My experience matches yours, and I wanted to call that out with more than just an up-vote. The ticketing system is where rework goes to die.
In an engineer-led environment without a project management class calling the shots, maybe I'd feel different, but whoever is ordering the backlog is always going to prioritize features and fires, because that's what drives their own career advancement.
In contrast, people working on the code for other reasons will notice a TO-DO and be much more likely to bring it up today, as some kind of "if I'm going to do changes in that area, I should also address this TODO, it will just take an extra $days". Or at least, it will guide them to the source of a long forgotten bug.