This is an interesting thread. As a suburban public school student who has been both in the AP classroom and in the regular classroom, I can definitely back up the claim that some “regular” classes are an intellectual wasteland. It might be taking it too far to say that is the case in most schools. However, at my school honors classes are only an option for freshman and sophomore science and for a slightly accelerated algebra 2 class. Honors classes are DEFINITELY not AP level here. They are viewed as AP preparatory. AP is where you find passionate teachers, motivated students, and quality textbooks. Keep in mind that most of these classes over-prepare kids for the exam and dive much deeper because the AP national exam doesn’t require much mastery.
As far as dual enrollment goes, I think that is definitely an awesome option to AP classes. One must realize that many areas don’t have many feasible DE options before one bashes the OP for focusing primarily on AP.