I think that's more up to the individual than the institution. My own story is a typical "I didn't know I had ADHD until it was too late," and I do wonder if I would have a better life if I just went straight into the workforce instead of spending a couple extra years trying to finish college and not realizing why its so hard for me. I even had a decent IT job in college, but thought it so shameful not to have a college degree that I quit to continue my studies and, of course, get deeper into debt. Maybe some personality types just don't work well in those environments. Insert typical "higher education isn't for everyone" debate here.
>Not to mention the "hunter-gatherer vs farmer" dichotomy doesn't explain the rise of ADHD diagnoses in the last 20 years
Maybe because society has reached a point where we can discuss these things without the idea of punishment and without applying morality to it? ADHD kids in the past were beaten, called losers, call sinful, called stupid, etc. Society hit them as hard as it could, yet it didn't fix anything. We've moved away from that mode of thinking and realized that some kids just aren't going to grow out of it and its not their fault. The same way that Alzheimers has been part of the human condition for god knows how long yet we only "discovered" it 1906. Before that, we just thought it was part of getting old and didn't realize its actually separate from aging the same way ADHD is separate from being an energetic child.
> Certainly it's less addictive than caffeine.
Getting off caffeine is trivial. Adderal withdrawal can be very serious for many people. I consider most ADHD meds to be pretty serious drugs. I don't think that's very controversial.