People are going out of their way to extol Harvard's supposed largesse, and how hardly anyone pays sticker. First, 45% do pay sticker according to the article.

Second, another way to look at this is that Harvard is putting a cap on a family earnings that it doesn't feel entitled to. ~$83K/year (post tax) is a massive amount of money for one child of a family making even $300K/year or $500K/year (pre tax).

The sticker price does matter, and this exemption is lipstick on the pig.

The problem with American higher education (and American healthcare, for the matter) is that they have persistently grown to opportunistically consume all the discretionary income of Americans.