Plus nobody cares about credentialing at all. What they do care about is solving problems, and it seems reasonable that 96% of problems become solvable with the course material provided before reaching the very end of a course. Once the problem is solved, there is little reason to continue.

You are generalizing. I am doing a MicroMaster in data science from MITx and they grant the equivalent credits of the first semester. It's worth something if I ever apply to a similar master program.