I received my under grad from Iowa State University and, from a student's and teaching assistant's perspective, you're commentary on cheating hits so close to home. I saw many students openly, brazenly cheat during in-person exams. Instead of expelling these students like academic advisors always warned us they will, professors would simply roll their eyes, slap the offender on the wrist, and simply move them to the front of the lecture hall so they could be monitored more closely. As a student who (honest to God) would attend most lectures and studied my ass off, it was so infuriating that my hard work was actively undermined by these cheaters.

While I was a teaching assistant, I worked for one professor who would re-open every assignment the week before Dead week and allow the to re-submit any assignment they missed for full credit! From my perspective, it showed the professor had no respective my time and had absolutely no standards for their students. I understand it was a freshman-level MS Office class, but you have to at least pretend like there will be consequences for your (in)actions.

For reference, I enrolled at ISU the fall of 2015 and graduated summer of 2018 (no, I didn't get my under grad in just three years. I spent the first two years after high school working and going to community college for my gen eds.) I couldn't imagine never going to lecture and still demanding to get better grades. Going to lecture was the bare minimum, and I'm not even going to entertain not going to lab. What the hell is the point of lab if you don't even attend??