This seems to be far more true now. Thirty or forty years ago, there was no other easy way to get access to a professional-level computer and software that one

This seems to be far more true now. Thirty or forty years ago, there was no other easy way to get access to a professional-level computer and software that one could write programs with. These days, of course, one can pretty much have it for free, along with a wealth of educational material. In addition, for people that had motivation problems, a University is a nice framework for forcing yourself into working through a lot of not-always-interesting material. That said, if I was graduating high school today, I'd probably already have five or ten years of solid learning and programming experience, and just join a startup directly rather than trudging through a BS.