Ivy league schools and their kindred also seem to be aware that they are inherently in the race to the bottom that "higher education" has become and feel threat

Ivy league schools and their kindred also seem to be aware that they are inherently in the race to the bottom that "higher education" has become and feel threatened, if they didn't, they wouldn't feel the need to go to such lengths. I wouldn't consider obfuscation in the interest of propagating information for those schools that supposedly want to help students make educated decisions in a reasonable/technically possible manor, unless they need "higher education" before they can decide such things from such basis. Also, ECMC Group keeping the lights on for College Abacus is like putting a band-aid over stab wound. Although, as long as young kids keep buying into the racket because they are told by their elders who paid an order of magnitude less for their "education" or for their “so much more than that” and reinforced by those around them that they need $x for $y (whether academia can only provide $x and if $x is the only way to do $y or not is irrelevant), the show will go on.