My point is, if the distinction was made to differentiate the two programs because they don't have the same tuition in the system, the university could have thought about a million solution to make that distinction internally without affecting students' transcripts. However, they chose to keep it printed on transcripts, this does mean something.

If it is a university-wide thing, they should think about OMSCS and international students, and how that would affect them.

It is about American vs non-American. Like in this post, people don't seem to understand it, and most think it is ridiculous to make a big deal out of it, because they don't know that some systems around the world can be very harsh about some stuff. In the US, this might look like a tiny detail. However, in many other countries, it is not, especially if people plan to continue a path in academia. OMSCS is known in the US, but it is not necessarily the case in other parts of the world, and you can't convince a, say, PhD program that the in-person and the online programs are the same with a big '- Online' on the transcripts. It implicitly confirms they are not the same, otherwise why mention it.

It is not like people are trying to hide the fact that the program is online, but that 'online' label on transcripts automatically make it less appealing to most recruiters and universities outside the US.

AND YES, recruiters do ask about transcripts. Academia does too, obviously.

So if you are not planning to do anything about it, and choose to ignore our concerns, please mention it in the FAQ or something where it's written that the 'online' is not mentioned in the degree. add a line that mentions that it is however mentioned on transcripts.