It looks like your license only allows for the web version, so your university probably isn't spending that much for it. You'd get the same message on Windows too.
They're a User hostile company and they make a buck by doing just enough to convince non-experts to keep their enterprise licenses.
Not as noticeable on light mode but a constant distracting reminder about how much Microslop sucks on dark mode.
I honestly would not attribute it to malice. I would attribute it to the scale of the company and the nature of the business they're in. A behemoth this size naturally has the "left hand doesn't know what the right one is doing" problem on an unfathomable scale simply because it's far too big for any one person to keep track of more than a small fraction of everything.
And then throw on top of it that they have a whole bunch of enterprise clients who can exert an incredible amount of pressure on individual decision makers. And there will never, ever be a Steve Jobs like figure who's willing to help them hold the line against that in the name of a sensible and coherent overall product vision because maintaining a sensible and coherent overall product vision does not generate positive ROI for this kind of company. Microsoft tried to have one several times during its "envious of Apple" days and every time the enterprise customers who actually supply their revenue responded by swatting them on the nose with a rolled up newspaper.
Also, just quickly poking through their various enterprise plans (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/mic...), I found several that offered Web & Windows but not Mac, and none that only allowed editing on Web like you describe.
- Client says they added me already, but I have no email with an invite. Turns out I didn't have an account that had previously joined Teams with a personal account.
- But even after I created a teams account, due to the order of events (added to corp account as guest, then created a teams account), I still don't have access and need to be readded.
- I can't upload images on groups because I don't have OneDrive access, WTF?
- I cannot download transcripts of meetings I join because I don't have permission.
How bad can a software be? Really?
Apple gives you neither choice or value, but everything just "work$". People come to me saying I used windows and it sucked, and that's because they are comparing a 500 dollar Acer laptop with a 1500 Macbook Air with no knowlge on how to properly use Windows.
Both have their market place, unfortunately the users with the least knowledge are the ones always complaining about Windows. And, let me tell you, when something is broken with their Mac, they also don't know what to do. See OP's post as a perfect example. They blame MS not their IT admin.
It's the reason Apple calls their support Genius bar. They are trying to message out "Hey, you really are smart, we are just geniuses". Well, you're not.
And they are paying microsoft a lot. The whole financial, HR, marketing departments and even some research groups use "Teams" to communicate.
It's unbeliveable.
Admins can reallocate licenses of different types among accounts or change them completely. That it worked fine a few months ago means nothing. Your account currently doesn't have a desktop entitlement at all, be it macOS or Windows.
Talk to your M365 admins and beware of lies they might tell you to cover up the truth.