If you're working for a university spinoff, academics probably come up more often than in the rest of industry. On the other hand, I led development on the flagship product of a university spinoff before taking over product management for another product that that university spinoff, and I have one semester of college to my name. So, no, I'm not sure this is really a regional thing either.

It might be more "specialty-related" than geographically-related. I work in the same field as Thomas (security), am from Boston, and have had largely the same experience as him about degrees.

I've also built security practices for three organizations, and can attest that not only is education not a positive hiring factor, it's at best neutral.