Which is a long way to "yes, I agree."
Perhaps it's about the type of question asked. Knowing the Sicilian Expedition happened after the death of Pericles is different than knowing it happened in (checks Wikipedia) 413 BC.
But then knowing the year is very important for the world historical context. At that era in Greek history, events in Persia had more impact than events in Italy and Britain was essentially unknown to them. Yet here we are living in a world where the Parthenon friezes are in the British Museum. It's hard to put together the different moving parts without dates.
There was no limit on how many notes one brought in to an exam. Some of the weaker students turned up with rucksacks full of ring binders and the invigilators had frequently to admonish them to make less noise rustling the papers! Those students almost all failed or attained only a pass degree.
In my opinion this successfully weeded out those who thought that memorisation was enough. The exams typically never asked anything that could be answered simply by looking up the answer in notes or even the textbook.
I'm not following. If you don't know the material, you have same incentive to cheat.