It's a good point -- I guess we'll find out next semester if the difficulty being below average had to do with the nature of the class itself (the a in 229a) or the audience it was being developed for. I hope, if the classes you mention are listed under the same course number they always have, that the difficulty won't be less than usual.

For the rest of us, what classes are these? Part of the reason an easier class is better for the public is because there's just less time for working people. If the difficulty/time commitment for the offered classes next semester are substantially more than 229a I'd imagine you'll see a much higher dropout rate not due to lack of ability but due to lack of time. It seems odd Stanford would try to pack a "real" course into the online/public format, but at the same time seems odd they'd dilute a "real" course for their undergraduates.