Agreed with the first point, 6.01 and 6.02 are as you point out a lot more than that.
It sounds like from what you're saying that the software component of them are as Sussman has commented, mostly "exercises in 'pasting libraries together'" with little deeper understanding of what's going on. And if you don't take 6.004 ("Computation Structures", from CMOS circuits to designing your own RISC processor)---it's not required for everyone anymore, right?---then one might graduate with an EECS degree without ever gaining that deep understanding of what's going on that starts with 6.001.
The real shame, or at least what I've guessed, is that when you take the new 6.005 which is supposed to teach most of the rest of what 6.001 taught which isn't covered in 6.01/2, you'll be doing it in Java, a language which for this purpose isn't even wrong.
It sounds like from what you're saying that the software component of them are as Sussman has commented, mostly "exercises in 'pasting libraries together'" with little deeper understanding of what's going on. And if you don't take 6.004 ("Computation Structures", from CMOS circuits to designing your own RISC processor)---it's not required for everyone anymore, right?---then one might graduate with an EECS degree without ever gaining that deep understanding of what's going on that starts with 6.001.
The real shame, or at least what I've guessed, is that when you take the new 6.005 which is supposed to teach most of the rest of what 6.001 taught which isn't covered in 6.01/2, you'll be doing it in Java, a language which for this purpose isn't even wrong.
I'd be very interested in your comments on 6.005.