You can’t just take a year off and magically find huge social groups and parties. Being in a college facilitates that. You also don’t seem to mention anything

You can’t just take a year off and magically find huge social groups and parties. Being in a college facilitates that. You also don’t seem to mention anything about networking. The best friends I’ve had come from freshman year in college when everyone is in the same boat and more willing to make friends. 2 years in, it’s a lot harder to break into established groups. At the end of the day, if all you want is a degree and need to save money, the two years at community college followed by two years as a university is definitely the way to go but it’s not optimal imo.