I didn’t doubt your experience when you first said you didn’t know how the class performed on the AP, and I’m not doubting your experience now that you are saying you know in detail. Either way, I don’t find such second hand anecdotes all that helpful in understanding the “negative side” of the approach, but maybe that is just me.
Added: About half your post above wasn’t there when I responded, but I’ll leave my post as is. Feel free to have the last word if you’d like, either above or below.