For many people, the degree itself provides more financial value in the long term than the material the degree teaches.
> There should be a school bypass mode for the manager types
There used to be. These people could start at a company doing unskilled labor and work their way up to management. But that has pretty much stopped happening in the past 40-50 years. See this relevant HN post from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22231579