The Saving Grace: Research
There is one major caveat to this critique. The beating heart that keeps the academic body alive and the only reason it is still worth navigating is the research.
My saving grace in graduate school was securing a Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA). That was where the real education happened. Away from the archaic lectures and standardized rubrics, research is where you actually touch the boundary of what is possible. It is the one space left in the university ecosystem where discovery and innovation are prioritized over bureaucracy. If you are going to go to grad school, go for the research. Everything else is just noise.
Stubbornness as a Strategy
I didn't get my career because a piece of paper guaranteed me a spot in computer graphics. I got it because I refused to let an empty job market dictate my trajectory. The system is not designed to hand you your dream; it is designed to process you.
If you have a vision for your life, guard it fiercely against the "rational" advice of the masses. Take the research experience, absorb the uncredited special topics, and leave the bureaucratic friction behind. At the end of the day, your success won't be a product of the institution. It will be a testament to your refusal to quit.