> Literally _everyone_ who says this doesn't understand what an unpaid internship is, including you.

This looks like a massive conflation of “is” and “is supposed to be.” I’m pretty sure tons of unpaid interns are either doing real work for the company or menial tasks that would otherwise be compensated (like getting coffee for people). The latter is a constantly-recurring plot element in depictions of modern workplaces.

You later claim that these cases are illegal. Even if that’s the case, it’s pretty clear that: A) this is ubiquitous, B) interns generally don’t have any recourse other than just not doing the internship, and C) people in this conversation aren’t actually confused about what internships are.