But I teach at a college that is good but not (by various measures) first tier. I've been teaching for more than 30 years, and I teach Calculus, and while I have many students who do well, the majority of my folks find Calc to be hard, very hard. So I perceive from the statement in the first paragraph that many HN readers may have some trouble understanding who is in these seats.
Perhaps half of the people in my class would have trouble writing down, say, what an arctangent is. An even larger issue, it seems to me, is that they do not have enough experience to know whether or not they understand something. They are not incapable dopes, but for instance if you go over homework numbers 11, 13, 15, and 17 and say "Do you understand?" they will nod. But you often find that if you ask them to do number 19, their pencil just hovers over the page.
I see a couple of notes that argue something like "Well, they were given the opportunity .." but that is too hard a line, for me, personally. They are good people but they need support or guidance, over a medium-term period.
TLDR: for first-rate performers this is great stuff. For the middle of the bell curve, not so much.