Home Edition: "People are familiar with using Office at work, so they'll probably want to use Office as well when it's time to design that Garage Sale flyer."
Student Edition: "Give them Office now at a discount, and they'll keep using (more expensive versions of) Office when they get a real job."
Office is named Office for a reason. Its entire existence revolves around the typical 20th-century white-collar office. All other use cases are secondary.
Instead of being cynical, maybe consider the fact that students find it easier to type essays with Word than with other products, so Microsoft gave them a discount so they could afford it? Win-win.
Student Edition: "Give them Office now at a discount, and they'll keep using (more expensive versions of) Office when they get a real job."
Office is named Office for a reason. Its entire existence revolves around the typical 20th-century white-collar office. All other use cases are secondary.