Brazil actually did pay enough debt (to the tone of federal superavits of 4.5%/year) to get rid of IMF. The part of the federal budget dedicated to pay debt is still monstrous.

Indeed, they might be following different policies, but first they had to get the creditors boot out of their neck. And they decided to do it the "creditor-friendly" way.

In any case, in Southern Europe, I think both avenues are closed: "creditor-friendly" = mathematically impossible. "creditor-unfriendly" = disaster consequences (as I bet there will be political will to make any country that follows that path an "example").