I didn't see any certification bearer selling themselves as "experts", rather as a way to tell they know the basics - a way to compensate for lack of basic expe

I didn't see any certification bearer selling themselves as "experts", rather as a way to tell they know the basics - a way to compensate for lack of basic experience. On the other hand, with only little experience in a domain (let's say one project) there's no way you'd cover an entire curriculum, that's why for me a short experience is roughly equivalent to a certification exam. And even if you memorized a dump, that's a dump of answers to real world questions which you know now by heart, which is exactly the point of the exam. This goes for basic-level certifications. The "advanced" certifications are a different story - they must be doubled anyway with long time practical experience, so for those I see little value in cheating: if you tell me you're an advanced XYZ yet can't back that up with year(s) of project experience, sorry dear you took the exam (be it for good or from a dump) for exactly naught.