And, since the independents have more curriculum time, generally, coursework is rather a pleasure.
Can I also say that coursework is not at all the same as Controlled Assessments? English GCSEs had CAs for a few years. They had to be done in class in silence, so were effectively exams : bloody boring and time consuming.
iGCSE coursework was not nearly so constrained : drafts were allowed and typing was allowed and talking was allowed. This, to me as a teacher of both, made iGCSE measurably easier (and, of course in many many ways better , if the content hadn't been so dull...) It honestly was not challenging.
But this is the only subject I have direct knowledge and experience of. As I said before my DH says the new maths GCSE is much harder than the current maths iGCSE.
So, it does kind of matter - because students applying for uni in a couple of years will be pitted against each other and, unless something is done to check iGCSE grades against new GCSE grades, there won't be a good (or at least very exact) degree of comparability (even less so than before). I am hopeful the universities are going to have a close look at this...
Originally, of course , Gove wanted the new qualifications to be written by the universities but they pulled out very early on.