And, by the way, literature is still assessed in the traditional format.

And no one is arguing that it's currently assessed in the traditional format, but literature was also part of the Unified State Exam (USE). The problem with the tests is that they focus on trivial details. What should we feel after reading a book? We should experience emotions, understand the author's ideas, follow the characters' journeys, grasp the essence of the story. But the tests focus on pointless facts. For example, the tired old question: which train ran over Anna Karenina.
In general, part C of the Russian exam involves fitting dry facts into a given text. You are required to prove a specific, already stated and well-worn problem with your own examples. And what does that lead to? "The author argues that war is bad. Firstly, people are killed, secondly, monuments and cultural heritage are destroyed, and thirdly, they even say so on TV." You wouldn't say: "War is great! Mountains of meat, seas of blood!" And there is practically no room for expressing your own thoughts. In a regular essay, you could come up with all sorts of ideas, but here, everything is constrained. And they even evaluate the essence of the answer and the artistic merit of this 150-word nonsense.