If that's the case, why not just state it? Why not be transparent with it and say that this was acquired fully online?

Also in NYU's case, how is an Offline Masters degree, that costs ~$70k to get and accepts ~20-50 students every year, the same and same quality with an Online Masters degree that costs ~$18k and accepts 5000 students per year? How could anyone say that these two are the same and of equal weight?

You can get an education and become a stellar engineer/professional whilst being self-taught. I've got no beef with the people getting degrees online, it's just that you can't equalize the two aforementioned degrees, cause they're just not the same. Like it or not.

And if it doesn't matter, like most of you say here, then why not just say it?