That’s a good point! I think it varies between countries and institutions a bit, but this attitude is common in many university programs. The university I started learning Chinese at has a very practical approach because they’re teaching engineering and business students who will go abroad and study in Chinese. That’s a very practical goal where communication skills is all that matters. No-one cares if you know classical Chinese if you can’t understand the lecturer or the questions on the exam. Many other universities, though, introduces classical Chinese early on, which has always seemed odd to me. At least in Sweden, studying Chinese and studying China (including politics, culture, history and so on) have always been intertwined, almost one subject. This is not the case for other combinations of countries/languages to the same extent. I’m not saying it’s bad to study (big) culture, history or classical Chinese, but I am agreeing with you that putting a lot of emphasis on that early on when the student just wants to be able to talk with people.