people have been able to buy old textbooks for practicly nothing and educate themselves for free for ages.
Yes, but the difference is that you will be able to study at a pace that you see fit and then go get formally qualified when you believe yourself ready to do so. Since the 1940’s, certainly, even if you knew everything about rocket science that could be known you still had to often sit through the classroom lectures.
Now much of that won’t be necessary.