I think one big problem with college here is that it's fairly easy to attend and get a degree while putting in only minimal effort. If you are someone who is motivated to make the best of your college experience, I think it is still possible to have experiences there that are difficult to have elsewhere.

As a personal example, I have a journalism BS, a law degree from a T20, and I then self-studied comp sci and software dev for four years before doing a career switch. I was fairly unmotivated in college and feel like my BS was a waste. The prestige of the T20 law school didn't change that; once I was admitted I was virtually guaranteed a degree and my motivation followed accordingly.

Then I had a life revelation that led me to the comp sci and a career that I am now obsessed with. My dedication to learning was able to get me significantly more educational value than I got out of my unmotivated degree work. I think I was able to get myself 90% of the way to a BS level in comp sci, but at the same time I do believe there are things I have missed out on by not getting a CS degree that I will really struggle to replicate on my own. For instance, I have tried and tried to (a) find a valuable Compilers course online (like I was able to for algs, ML, linear alg, discrete, etc.), or (b) self-study via textbooks, but neither has been very successful.

Now, would that missing 10% from my CS self-education have been worth $100,000? Since I'm someone with no interest in academia, probably not, but it's hard for me to tell.

I do think that encouraging young people to pursue other avenues than college is part of the answer, but I think we'll fail to make college a truly valuable experience for all unless we increase the challenge (on the average -- certainly there are some schools currently in existence that are highly challenging).