[justanotherjoe]

A couple things come to mind reading this. Maybe your professor knew the material was engaging in itself or the textbook was exceptionally well written that any added structure on top was likely to complicate it. The second possibility was that maybe they knew it was a fundamental course that students must engage with anyway.

Regarding the lack of feedback, maybe grade was sufficient. Sometimes enough is best.

I feel like whats most important in teaching is that the teacher has integrity. If you can control the teacher in any way, that loses the dynamic. In fact, his idiosyncratic method might indirectly increased his integrity score, which we subconsciously evaluate on teachers before we allow ourselves to engage.