People of all ages rarely do hard things that are good for them. Colleges have long assigned homework. My daughter has enough time reserved in class to do the work without taking it home.
He still assigns homework. He's not grading it. The students that want to try, they're free to do it. If they have questions, there are office hours.
The only thing being removed is the grading, not their homework. If they want to learn, they can.