I'm not sure what's going on in your mind that makes you say things like that. Students (and especially prospective students) are pretty much the bottom rung when it comes to negotiating clout, unless they throw their toys out the cot in large numbers. Unless you're wealthy and can pick and choose what school you go to (and even what country you study in), that may be a bit of a different thing. Most students don't have such luxury.
I'm sure many peoples' stories are pretty much like mine was. There's one university in my city. I lived at home, couldn't afford accommodation elsewhere in addition to tuition costs. Had to work a bit on the side to make ends meet as it is. If my university had a requirement like this, my choice would have been, either accept it, or see how well I fare packing groceries or whatever else kind of employment I could have found without a formal qualification. Sure, my decision wouldn't have been binding on anyone else. But I suspect that when faced with the choice: install app on phone, or forgo formal qualification, most folks would choose similarly to me.
(For the record, I completed my studies well before smartphones were pervasive enough for this to become a reality, fortunately, iPhones were still very new and only wealthy folks had them. I had a candy-bar phone which had a colour screen! So the topic at hand wouldn't really have been possible then.)