Which is the larger issue. You obviously have to do projects and work to complete the degree, but there's a lot of work you have to do that makes the university money but which isn't necessary or even helpful for meeting that goal. In many PhD programs, this work is first and foremost; you can be reprimanded for spending too much time on your studies because you are cheap labor first and a student second. I didn't realize this before entering grad school. I was shocked how little "school" there actually was in Grad School as a PhD student.

It's common practice in PhD programs to categorize some of this non-degree labor as being worthy of compensation and other work as "just what you have to do". You might TA a few classes and get paid for that, but you might also have to collect data, run studies, or write for things that have nothing to do with dissertation but which the university can submit for grant funding and not get any compensation for this. You wind up spending 80 hrs a week doing all of it, but they get to say "you only actually worked 20hrs ^based ^upon ^how ^we ^define ^your ^labor." Furthermore, after 2 years, you aren't even taking classes. You are literally only there to labor and eventually write a dissertation, so the tuition remission they claim to so beneficently be bestowing upon you is largely a means of putting money back into their own pocket with fairly limited expense actually tied to it.

It's still not such a bad deal getting to do something you really like and immerse yourself in it. But when you don't even make enough to pay rent, and the university exploring you profited over $500 million in two years, it's untenable.