While I generally agree (as someone who in the past few years graduated from such a university), the reality is that the tours are about the residential aspect

While I generally agree (as someone who in the past few years graduated from such a university), the reality is that the tours are about the residential aspect of campus and not the academic part of campus. The entire point of them is to address what life is like. If you are touring the university you have almost guaranteed already researched the academic aspect of the university. And more importantly, part of the issue is that most universities (particularly Tier 1 universities) will provide on average a very mediocre "standard" undergraduate education. Of course if you go out of your way you can get a really good education but the default experience is going to be meh at best. This leaves the question of "why would I want to study somewhere I know will likely give me a meh experience when it's also miserable living there" which is how you end up with the way universities are updating their residential environments.