I think it has already worked to an extent, but like FSW it has saturated super fast. With millions of students with no meaningful skills, I'm not sure how they are going to make it? Canada for sure won't take in million a year and the current pace of enrolment is creating those volumes that should shortly show up in the pool.
People complaining about high CRS scores are in for a surprise. And honestly, Canada needs people that are in-demand e.g. carpenters, border agents, bankers, etc. Most students coming through these routes neither have aspirations to be one(I mean, look at the volume of MBAs or MS in Computer Science) or are skilled enough to be one.
I think this is not a new story. I think this is a story that is repeating itself. People used to pull the same thing in UK and AU, it failed after a certain time. I see people who spent 10 years in AU on student visas hoping for the same thing as students do in Canada. And to own what I say, as a FSW-O, I consider myself lucky to be invited. Most people think it is their right, but it is honestly a privilege to be considered. As immigration gets more stricter, less and less people will get lucky. But that's for the good of Canada at the end. Imagine not having medical staff in your city because all ITAs were issued to English speaking Software engineers, lol!