I don’t have a CS degree, but my first real experience with college was in an English course (that I ended up testing out of, along with all other English courses, but which was designed to bring students up to speed for college) going “oh my god they let functionally illiterate people into college now… is this even worth doing?”

And the answer was ultimately no, financially-speaking, but yes from a personal perspective. Sounds like CS has the opposite conclusion; not really worth it from a personal perspective, but worth it from a financial perspective.