I would make the observation that mere "dozens-to-hundreds of hours agonizing" over theoretical topics leaves one very far from qualified to design critical complex systems. At best, it gives one a shallow understanding of the domain but no expertise in the theoretical design of operational systems. Every CS grad knows how to design a database engine -- a very poor and naive database engine that has little resemblance to what an expert in the theory of databases would design. Same story with parallel systems, networking protocols, etc.

For as much time as is spent in school on theory, one still needs to spend (at least) an order of magnitude more time going deep in a theoretical domain to understand it well enough to apply it competently. The difference in the amount of self-study required to grok many classes of complex systems design between someone with a CS degree and someone without falls below the noise floor. No matter what, you will need to do inordinate amounts of self-study to acquire theoretical competency.

A CS degree is essentially a theoretical survey course. It tells you these domains exist and gives a little bit of high level context, but if you want to become an expert in those theory areas then you are still learning almost entirely on your own and/or from other experts on the job.