There's also a stigma against this path.

I went to a community college for two years (it was free), and then transferred the University of Florida to finish my degree (a fine public R1 university by any standard), paying exactly $0 for my degree. I know people who followed that same path and went on to top tier law schools, medical schools, bulge bracket investment banking, etc.

Now I can look back and be grateful that I got a great education for free, but I was, and still am slightly embarrassed by saying I went to a community college.

I now live in NYC where I'm pretty sure people can do almost the same thing with the SUNY school system, and come out with an undergrad degree for like $30k (still a lot, but most folks I know paid $100k+ for undergrad degrees that are not substantially differentiated from the path I did).