It is likely that many of those developers paid $0 for a degree, and yet still can write good software and solve hairy technical problems. Skills, intelligence,

It is likely that many of those developers paid $0 for a degree, and yet still can write good software and solve hairy technical problems. Skills, intelligence, talent, study, patience and much trial-and-error needed to work in this field, but not, strictly speaking, a degree of any kind.