I guess I was less addressing the issue of asking questions in class (which you're right, did not happen a lot in the bigger lectures at my university - though it still did - but was super important once you were at 300 level and above and the classes we're a lot smaller with a lot more dialogue between lecturer and student) than the fact that this sort of policy gives academic institutions (that charge students thousands of dollars to attend) even less incentive to provide students with quality education from enthusiastic teachers.