I think this is some much needed optimism about the higher ed and educational system. True, these people are exceptional, but I think the media only looks at the things that wrong with the educational system.
A STEM professor once told me he needed a Masters in math before they would let him in. They doubted an American with just an undergrad degree could handle the technical challenge. This was almost 2 decades ago, since then the gap may have widened a bit.
The EU has had the BMD reform in the past where education systems were standardized to a bachelor-master-doctorate three-party system.
To get to a PhD, you need first a bachelor (the name usually varies depending on the country, e.g., it is called a license in France), then a master.
That's the very common pipeline there. Doing a PhD without a master is a rare thing.
its a crab bucket situation