I found this video which simply and clearly demonstrates how "McDojos" work, and it's precisely how all the non-traditional martial arts schools that I have ever been to work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvAiSaBGaj8
As I have long espoused, none of the things that many of these schools present (e.g. certifications, uniforms, belts/ranks, titles etc.) are remotely traditional (i.e. historically authentic). They are all modern inventions primarily created or popularised when/as martial arts became increasingly commercialised during the 20th Century. I have found such schools to ultimately be a waste of time and money that often hardly teach anything that's intuitive to self defence, and in many cases, teach techniques which are counter intuitive to self defence and are more likely to put you in greater danger in a real fight. Have a look at this video, it's only about 10 min long, and consider the school that you are training at or have trained at or are thinking about training at. Look out for the signs that it may be a "McDojo" rather than an authentic martial arts school.

There's also this wiki page about McDojos and you can scroll down to "Warning Signs." People who train in martial arts are investing a LOT of time and money. You'd like to think that you're investing in something that's legitimate. IMO, comparing non-traditional schools w/ traditional schools is like comparing Movieverse toys with Masterpiece Transformers, but only with the prices reversed! (so imagine paying MP Bumblebee's price for an AoE Deluxe Class Bumblebee and vice versa!) When I trained at a traditional school, everything I learnt was of superior quality at a much cheaper price. No uniform, no belts, no grading fees -- just annual membership fee to cover insurance and lesson fees. That was it. When I've tried non-traditional stuff, I've paid loads more for something that I ultimately found wasn't all that great.