That's the thing .... most people who are doing work themselves at home and for their own purposes, never need something like O365 ... when it comes to schooling it should be the same, unless the school is doing very specific particular thing just to justify using O365, then it shouldn't be required

Word processing is very simple ... I have an old Underwood typewriter from 1921 ... I can write and format a letter using it if I wanted to ... it shouldn't be any more complicated than that.

Microsoft pushing their software is just a cheap salesman selling snake oil that you don't need and doesn't do anything special.