>What Central Park provides (nature) is scarce among what surrounds it (an incredibly urban and dense landscape). On the contrary, research institutions compose the majority of top U.S. universities, and are not in danger of being supplanted by something else should they adapt their charters.

What universities provide (liberal education, basic research, etc.) is scarce among what surrounds them (capitalism). Time is finite; the more of it we spend on workforce training, the less of it there is for an undergraduate education's current content.

Maybe the current content is not worthwhile, so we may as well gut it and reuse the facilities/framework for vocational training, but surely you recognize that doing so makes the current content less available.

>traditionally research-focused universities should also work to better support the motivations of the majority of their undergraduate (and paying) student body

Customer-service mindset is a poor fit for education. If "the customer is always right," why bother with teaching?