I understand your point. I worked through college to make ends meet and still have student loan debt I'm paying off in my 40s. However, 60,000 people weren't showing up to watch me take a test, and my profs weren't making million dollar salaries off of that. I'm not saying I think the current situation is ideal, but I also feel like student athletes should be allowed to capitalize on their own name, image, and likeness if someone is willing to pay them to actually endorse something. Hopefully a happy medium can be found.
You could've done both - make them employees, pay stipends/wages, give them benefits, etc. that most schools could afford. Then you could make some allowances for actual NIL with some regulations. The intent was for a guy to actually make money of his N, I and L. Not a pay for play system. There would be plenty of shady crap - here's $500,000 for an autograph, but if you make them employees and concede on that, you have a shot at putting some oversight and regulation on it.
And before people say, "that's not fair" to limit or regulate NIL, first, you are doing that to allow players to benefit while securing the health of the college sports media industry for future generations of kids to get scholarships, stipends, etc. Second, much, if not most, of the value these kids have is because of the decades of past players and billions spent on developing brands at these schools.
Again, Armando Bacot for UNC is not valuable in a vaccum. If he's the exact same guy playing in the G-League, he has almost zero "NIL" value. He's just a guy that can get you 14 and 9 in a UNC uniform. Somehow a guy that would be a 2-way player, if not straight up G-League guy is making more in college than almost any G-League guy. Why do people think that is? The schools have a legit claim that they are creating NIL value for these players. It's hard to quantify, but it's undeniable and obvious.
A few years ago there were tons of #52 ISU jerseys being worn. What percentage of people that bought them were buying a Jeremiah George jersey that happens to also be an ISU jersey, vs. buying an ISU jersey that happens to have the number Jeremiah George wears?