[aprrrr]

It seems like the meat of the course and how you grade it are somewhat orthogonal. Have you ever tried teaching it for real, however you think the semester would best be spent, then just curve/inflate/whatever the grades to get the desired distribution at the end?

[yequalsx]

They are orthogonal to a large degree. What you say happens quite frequently. Mostly, I'm teaching to 3 or 4 students. That's how many are interested on average.