This is so misinformed.
Then please inform.
Ok, well first of all the more important reason is that credit cards offer a lot of consumer protection even ignoring cash back. We've gotten about 20-25% off
everything we put on several of our cards that we got this year.
Maybe $3k or more in value is an "insignificant" benefit to you, it's not to me.
Second, a credit score is something which is trivial to make awesome and has a lot of random benefits. Job applications, rental applications, loan applications (mortgage/car), etc, all allow you significant benefit from having the best score.
And last, for $4k worth of tuition there are many cards the OP could get that immediately give them $500-$1000 in benefits. Getting 25% off tuition for an hour worth of work at most sure sounds significant to me.