What I said was that everyone who buys a product is entitled to a fully functional device unless it's bought with the understanding that something, which is clearly specified, is not available.

This "thingie" is supposed to verify that all the memory locations in the HD44780 are properly functional, that the character generator RAM works properly, and that all the modes described in the HD44780 datasheet are available. Along the way, it illustrates what those modes are, information that is certainly not easy to extract from the datasheet.

When a student goes to the instructor's office or lab, he can, if he wishes, hand his LCD to the instructor and tell him, "Here's the LCD I got. I'd like to make sure it's OK before I start." or, "Gee, this doesn't work as I expect in my circuit. Do you think it's broken?" or, "I messed up and may have overstressed this thing. Can you check to see whether I need to replace it, please?" The instructor can then plug it in, "push the button," and see what happens. Presumably, the result will be a conclusive evaluation of the device's status.

I fail to see what that has to do with "last year's project."

Perhaps you didn't notice that I suggested that they could mitigate the risk of copying from year to year by changing to a different MCU next time?

RE