Yep, totally possible to get to an assistant professor/lecturer without a Ph.D, but they are not considered full-time faculty, will not qualify for tenure track

Yep, totally possible to get to an assistant professor/lecturer without a Ph.D, but they are not considered full-time faculty, will not qualify for tenure track (i.e. can theoretically get fired at any time, but realistically probably not), do not get top pick for courses/course slots (and might not be eligible to teach certain courses despite having the credentials to do so), and, at some schools, are not eligible for the same number of holidays as full-time faculty are. It makes sense from within. The goal for a majority of Ph.D's is to become a professor at a four-year college and conduct research on government grants (or get tenured so that they can basically get paid to be retired). That can't happen if you have industry vets who can _actually teach these courses, and probably do a better job of it_ taking those spots. So you lock them out of those opportunities entirely and get TAs (for bigger core classes), adjuncts or staff/lecturers to teach everything else.