Co-opting universities to teach using Esri tools is a big part of Esri's marketing. They provide those tools to schools below cost, encourage (bribe) profs to incorporate their toolset heavily into their curriculum with free seminars in nice places, and it's often a revolving door between academia and Esri research posts.
SAS, matlab, ersi they all have the same business model. Subsidize students so they don’t know a competing tech and also capitalize and nurture corporate lock in.
I could rant about sas for ages. Its like it was purpose built to encourage anti patterns and Its own docs show code style is a foreign concept to the company.
Reminds me of the opioid industry!