I understand that shaving off a year can save money. But that does not make me think it is a good idea. Using APs tl to enable students to take more advanced classes seems like a good idea to me. Using it to shave off a year does not. I am not suggesting that students re-take the material that they have already taken-whether that material was taken a as an honors, AP or regular class. Depending upon the topic, there is bound to be some overlap in content. That does not mean those high school classes were really college classes. Rather, to ensure those with no background can still study any topic, some colleges offer courses at a very low level-assuming no background. Many students will be able to start at a higher level then the very basic-regardless of how they acquired the foundation. Hopefully most students will start at reasonable levels in most topics and will strive to master as much as possible. There is a reason those better schools tend to try to ensure students attend the full 4 years of college.
My advice is to try for the really truly amazing education rather than the efficient and truncated one. If you can’t afford that, then that is another story. But that was the question asked by the OP and that is my opinion.