Except, is it? People aren't going to college to get educated - you can learn almost everything you would in school on your own, since most classes end up just using a text book anyway. Only the high level stuff where you are actually interacting with phds in some field do you get value for your absurd tuition.

Most people are there for credentials, and one of those key credentials is the GPA. If taking a certain course set at one school gets you a degree considered equivalent at another, but the other school has a department head who likes "50% is average" then you end up with one student with a 3.5 and one with a 4.0 when both are equally qualified.

The one who went to the stringent school doesn't get the job. And there is very little information on what classes what what schools (and in particular, what professors) are going to give you A's for effort or D's for genius.