Well, I suppose the upshot to the whole thing is that, after graduating with my 4.00

The value of the GPA is vastly overinflated by academia. For the most part, no one in any industry gives a shit about it (in no small part because it is a useless metric).

See the thing is that you're not very "unique" with that degree -- from the perspective of nearly everyone that matters (those who hire), it is the equivalent of a Pitney-Bowes postal meter "stamp" -- and it is essentially a mundane commodity; there are countless thousands upon thousands of virtually identically "stamped" degree holders out there.

I still wouldn't attribute so much intention to the actions of those people I described.

LOL. To be sure, most of them (indeed probably everyone in any/all of the "groups/teams" you yourself were a part of) were essentially just "slackers/mediocrities", rather than Machiavellian "masters of manipulation" who will leverage themselves into positions of massive power or prestige.

Nevertheless, there is a good chance that they WILL -- having obtained the same essential "postal meter degree" that you yourself have; and additionally, having learned (whether consciously or subconsciously) that it is possible (and indeed fully acceptable) to get/take credit for others' work -- implement similar things in their later career, and will engage in similar tactics to end up somewhere in middle-management (where they, or their proverbial twins) will likely be your supervisors, and be compensated significantly better than yourself (salary, plus bonuses, other perks, etc).

I guess a small point of my set of anecdotes was to simply illustrate how the wider system of academic institutions is (a.) enrolling anybody and everybody who can pay tuition and (b.) increasingly graduating that same anybody and everybody.

Certainly. You didn't really think the system gave a shit about actually "educating" anyone in terms of actual skills/knowledge, did you?

BTW -- if what you yourself really wanted was to LEARN things -- or alternately to "network" -- well, ironically you didn't need to PAY for it at all.

What you "bought" was that postage-meter stamp "degree" -- and it really IS just a commodity item for sale to anyone who pays the fees (all of the rest -- the supposed "education" -- is just a wholly optional and largely delusional "bullshitting" game; which is why the profs generally don't give a crap about it, they're chiefly there only for the sinecure aspect).