Teaching kids how to communicate by, for example, writing a book report or an essay is not "busy work". I feel very lucky that I had good teachers that focused on the basics of writing. I remember at the time not liking some of it at all (I had one teacher who made us diagram sentences endlessly), but as an adult I'm really grateful I had that education.

Most things can only be learned through practice. Students skipping practice makes the whole system useless. Spinning wheels just to spin wheels.

I think saying "oh it's busy work" without proposing a solution that doesn't involve orders of magnitude more work for teachers probably should spend a a few days in close proximity to a high school teacher.

A way to work around busy work is exactly what schools need to make them stop assigning busy work.