Why would one think that theory only comes from schooling? Some of the largest contributions ever made to hard sciences have come from people with litte formal

Why would one think that theory only comes from schooling? Some of the largest contributions ever made to hard sciences have come from people with litte formal schooling. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday I agree with your idea that degrees are mostly about credentialing. In the best case, they can lead to a close mentorship from an expert, but that's rare these days.