Well absolutely it's a marketing ploy, otherwise Universities would have a hard time selling their product. What would be the point to pay extra for training that could be worse than your local flight school?
In the grand scheme of things, 500 hours is not worth getting the 4 year degree and paying extra. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my degree, loved college and would do it the exact same way again. People choosing the aviation college just for the R-ATP doesn't make sense though. It's not worth it if someone is going just for the hour reduction. Now if you're going to college anyways and want to actually study aviation, different story. That would be my selling point to someone getting started in aviation looking at a aviation degree. It's a really fun degree!