They enjoyed the program and what they were learning in their courses for the most part. However, they felt like the focus of the curriculum didn't align with the distribution of jobs in the industry. I think they complained that there was a heavy mech focus whereas more of a software background would have been more helpful for jobs.

They also said that some students got kind of pushed into software jobs early on in their coop careers and regretted not doing something like CS or ECE if they were just going to be going for software jobs anyways.

They also said that there wasn't enough integration between the 3 subfields (mech, electrical, software). Those were pretty much their main gripes. I think they still enjoyed it but would have rather done something like ECE.

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Hey dude, I went for embedded systems ahead of 2B and 3A, where you do RTOS and computer architecture. If you stay for 2A there is a digital logic course that many people enjoy.
Past that you are correct, this is not a programmers curriculum yet you are expected to be a competent coder. A few of us have dropped tron in favor of the benefits of CS. I would be in ECE if I could redo my university career.
Im in 3A. The biggest problem we have is burnout after 2B. The courses are okay now that the worst prof (savage) was removed. It may be just my class because 2019 saw a transition to software in much higher proportions, but I can tell that many of my class mates are jaded.
If you prefer coding to mechanics and hardware I suggest leaving while you can. Keep in mind im disgruntled during hell week rn.
To answer your question - yes projects are your only way to get into better jobs, short of pretending to employers that the coming hardware and software labs were a bigger deal than they are.
I really do think a good chunk of my class hates the mechanics portion (i.e. The entirety of the core) by now simply because nobody is going for mech jobs (less than a quarter id say). I entered this program to get breadth of exposure, but the mechanics at this point seems like a lot of pointless models that ill never use.
24k in tuition fees in i did not want to be bumped back. I can still get the EE work im looking for regardless of engineering major, so it's essentially just a waiting game for me - waiting to graduate.
Is mechatronics a good program? Only if you actually care about mechatronics. The jobs exist,despite their elusive status.

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Hey, so what I'm realizing more and more is that I have no interest in Mechanical stuff, and 3A/3B has a ridiculous amount of mechanical courses. With that being said 2B is definitely a lot more hands on in that you do RTOS (real time operating systems) and working with implementing filters in real life. In highschool, I didn't apply to CS at all because I thought I would have no interest in it, and applied to Ivey (business instead). Have I enjoyed this program? Not really, but I also don't dislike it.
So since you're in 1B, remember that MTE 140 is literally the only programming course you'll have that is relevant to interviews at Big 4. After that you'll have embedded courses but most software engineering jobs (high paying) don't have an embedded focus.
Also, even though I'm following the software path, I still don't know if writing code is all I wanna do full-time. Waterloo has this cali or bust bubble, where cali is the be all end all. I admittedly fell into that bubble, but outside of waterloo/cs, most people don't know or care about the Cali hype.
If you like embedded programming or mechanical stuff, tron is good but waterloo works doesn't have a lot of those jobs. If you get caught in the california $50/hr prestige hype like I did, and want to go into software, just know you're gonna have to learn things on your own.
My path is to hopefully get co-ops that are as technical as possible, and then transition into a management/people oriented role after graduation (with my technical experience backing it).
Now my advice: if you know you want to do software/work in software, switch into SE/CS while you're in 1B.
If you don't know yet (and are like me), then I don't know what to tell you since I'm also trying to figure it out.