If he's playing in Australia then it appears he wasn't actually "forced" to play college basketball.
I was using irony to make that point. There has long been a false narrative the the NBA's age limit rule prevents kids from making money off their talents and forces them to go to college. Which of course has never been part of the rule at all. Kids are free to do whatever they want with the year after high school, even just spend it working out with a personal trainer and playing pickup if they wanted to. And they can go make money as well, whether by playing in a different professional league or enter the G League. Heck, they don't even have to graduate from high school, they can go pro overseas and then enter the NBA at age 19. Obviously LaMelo dropped out of high school for a minute to make some money. Jeremy Tyler skipped his senior year of high school to play overseas.
The rule itself isn't the problem nor is it even a bad thing. It's really all the operations and organizations around the rule that have failed to properly incorporate and adapt. Even when the NBA removes the rule there will still be players leaving after their freshman year. What the NBA should be doing is increasing G league salaries and maybe even lower the G league draft age limit to 17.
