The four year degree is treated as the safe choice and the thing to do while undecided. It is a large commitment and it deserves to be chosen rather than defaulted into.
Retention money usually gets spent on whichever lever is easiest to pull. The options differ enormously in how long the effect lasts and what it actually costs.
Pricing against a competitor copies their arithmetic without ever seeing it. The number that decides everything is how many hours a year can honestly be billed.