“ The thing that really spins my head about this, is that since you never get concrete feedback on whether you're meeting the goals you need to meet, this system forces you into over-committing to the course.”

I think this is a problem in educaion in the N. America. What are these “goals” that your are potentially “overcommitting” to?

Nothing you produce in undergrad is of any value except to advance your knowledge. The grade isn't the teacher’s payment for good work, its an assessment of how well you’ve mastered the topic.

Seen this way, you know how well you’ve mastered a subject even if you get nothing back.