I concur. When we explored SYA here it seemed pretty clear that the classes abroad would not be at the level of a year of mostly 500 level classes here at the home base. So coming back would be a mixed bag and would likely have involved a mix of repeating individual classes and/or moving on from certain disciplines. Between the apparent academic gap, and the desire to have 3 years at BS (first year was covid lockdown so to our minds didn’t count as such), we did a summer program instead - which was amazing, but I understand that’s not what you’re asking about!
Anyway, I actually found it somewhat odd that despite how much SYA is pushed here (by which I mean “it’s a thing on the menu and they try to facilitate applications”) it’s not such a clear path academically.
I also agree though that “the rest” would be totally amazing, and may completely swamp any of the other issues. It didn’t for us but I totally get that choice.