Because American educational institutions are not and haven’t been about academia and learning for some time. It’s a good ol’ boys club you pay with daddy’s money or massive amounts of debt to be a part of, to give you a piece of paper you can use to virtue signal to other people who wasted similar amounts of money in the same place.

There are some of those, yes, but far more colleges and universities are NOT those than are.

Hiring in IT has been an eye opener, I actively distrust people who present their degree as their first and foremost point of hirability; because they’re usually useless.

I do IT hiring as well. I don’t fault the younger folks that lead with their degree. They’ve been told all of their lives how important it is to get one and the it will make them stand out from their peers. I’ll agree with you however that a degree by itself does not make someone competent at the subject matter.

When I’m dealing with recent grads, I’ll ask for things outside of the degree coursework that deals with problem solving or demonstrations of conceptual knowledge (as oppose to rote). Lots of them fall flat when put to these question, some, however, shine. Where a degree (any degree) is useful is that it usually means they can write decently enough. They know at least some etiquette and professionalism. Hopefully it also means they know how to look something up, which really is the key skill of IT.