I have no dog in this fight, but his description lines up with my experience. I showed up at Cal in 2001 as a nerdy kid super-jazzed about math. I took Math 1A my first semester, and the lectures started with the professor turning his back to the class and proceeding to write proofs on the board for 90 minutes in indecipherable handwriting with little to no explanation. People would show up to class with pillows, no joke.

I got a middling grade (B+), but the experience was so bad it was the last math class I took. It took me seven years to fully realize my mistake and get back to working in line with my passions.

Anecdata I know, but at least one case where bad Cal math instruction derailed a trajectory.

I would love to have someone secretly record that lecture and put it on YouTube to shame the lecturer. I'm curious if someone has actually done this?

The other side of the story is that they probably want a consistent approach to education,

having people go "unconventional" as they say.

might work but it also might backfire. Its like being on the bleeding edge.You might bleed.

I think the fast food analogy plays on the fact that every burger should be equal quality.

Innovation comes at a cost in education, you are playing with lives.

Surely gathering performance metrics and analysing them is the method of avoiding the backfire? Surveying downstream faculties and see how they like the results is another way to measure and move forward from a system of cronies with a low risk of degradation.

Having graduated from Cal a year ago, his description is on point. The education there is not great for undergrads