Everything is a trade-off. It's true that they can't get paid with hard cash. On the other hand, if the pros had an actual minor league where players were getting paid a little bit, nobody would care about it. All that money that colleges get from sports wouldn't be going to this new minor league system. No add revenue, no TV bowl game windfalls, cuz nobody would care about it. On the whole, I think players would overall be more satisfied in a college atmosphere where they're getting good training and begin taken care of and play in meaningul games for fans who actually, then they would traveling like minor league Baseball players, not really making a meaningful amount of money, paying for a few hundred fans in towns they've never heard of. After all that, it's worth noting that scholarship players ARE being compensated.

So you're right, it's "only a historical fact." But it's too simplistic to just imply that the system stinks and things would overall be better some other way.