You keep bringing up these 500K degrees, but I'm not aware of any schools that charge anything close to that for a degree. The most expensive college I could find wouldn't come close to that after 4 years, and that's a hyperspecialized school for people with disabilities[1].

Having come from a liberal arts program: excellence there is a strong predictor for general workforce competence, including in technical fields (like I am now). I studied 18th century German philosophy, and now I work on compilers. But even this shouldn't be a necessary justification: developing our understanding of history, society, and the human condition is sufficient in itself.

[1]: https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-50-most-expensive-colle...