It's a flawed system, but simply not counting your parents money is an even more flawed system.
This doesn't just affect the individual, it affects all of us who are trying to hire good engineers. The smaller the number of people that are allowed to attempt an engineering degree, the fewer that will earn them. Every single potential engineer that is prevented from entering the field because of education hinders us.
Trying to bring this back to HN a bit more, I think that entrepreneurs and capitalists should realize (and you may already be on the same page with me) that they are in essence farming society; they are leveraging and multiplying the work and efforts of many others in order to enrich their own wealth and the wealth of others. The more fertile the soil, the more the entrepreneur can grow. For technology based capitalists, a more educated society provides far more fertile soil both in terms of workforce and potential customer base.
The benefit for the companies which do this is that they've essentially trained engineers allready familar with their company culture, technology stack and working procedures, which require no additional time to train. Also it's beneficial for the image of the company.
The benefit for the students is that they graduate debt free and with solid job prospects (since they allready have one).