I had the same thoughts.
The days of sacrificing to have less debt will never be over. Some people work really hard to minimize their debt. Whether that debt is zero or not doesn't matter. The cost incurred was the same, the method of payment was different. While many of the students in that audience probably worked really hard to minimize their debt, some of them accumulated more debt than might be absolutely necessary because of their lifestyle choices. This kind of "lottery win" type of surprise rewards those who took more student loans. Period. There needs to be a way to reduce the hardship for everyone - not just those who may have made the riskiest choices.
Yes, this was generous and exciting. But if I were in that audience I would have been immediately deflated because of the choices we made. I was PROUD of how hard I worked to put my kids through school. Now I'd be thinking I should have followed the "life is short spend my money now and worry about college later" mentality and I just wasted a whole lot of my life paying for something I could have gotten for free had I made riskier choices. I'd also be thrilled for the kid working while going to school and living cheaply, but I'd be irritated/jealous about the kid who was using their student loan money for vacations and new furniture and now got that for free. Making the choice to take out 200k of loans for a bachelor's degree is unfathomable for me, as is the windfall that student just got. I think it's only natural for the student who worked really hard to minimize loans to say "what the heck?"
I think really mixed feelings about his are normal, as are jealousy and hard feelings. Watching the majority of other students/families win the lottery while you got nothing would be hard.