because those programs directly generate high eight to 9 figures a year in revenue, and also drive alumni donations & new admissions.

It is, but unfortunately, pure knowledge, shared freely, isn’t going to be able to pay the bills. Academia is a world separate from the rest of society sometimes, but it still exists in a world that runs on money. Food, power bills, taxes, rent; they all need to get paid. Even that big institutions like Harvard with unfathomably large endowments still have bills to pay and that’s the mindset that people still operate under. If they were able to make a new society, free of money then they could avoid the need to profit. But we tried that and human nature got in the way. so we’re left with the unfortunate reality that universities do see a need to profit. I don’t disagree that it’s a rot but I don’t see how it could be any other way.

An investment is an investment, regardless of whether it is expected to yield money, prestige, or knowledge. If a dollar spent on biological research produces more knowledge than a dollar spent on AI research, it makes more sense to spend that dollar on biological research.