Your last sentence is the reflection of a wise man.
Consider a moment that the concept of college/university is a relatively modernist fad. Think how deprived Pericles, Aristotle, Euclid, Sophocles, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, Aurelius; among hundreds of Ancients were w/o degrees, the poor things. Despite this, they managed to create Western Civilization.
The Scholastics of the High Middle Ages were self taught natural philosophers and logicians; our first scientists.
Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Mozart, among other geniuses,
managed just fine w/o degrees.
We are in thrall to horse manure and malarkey, as if a credential equates to achievement. It never did.
Cold reality is real simple. We stand of the massive shoulders of the giants of the past which allows us to see as far as we do.
Did greater minds develop because of lesser freedoms? Do our freedoms encourage mental laziness?