I agree with what you are saying. In one of the teams that I work with we have a developer who was a truck driver for a couple of years and then decided to learn to code. He is one of the best developers I have ever worked with, he spent so much time learning on his own, studying and the passion and drive that he has is inspiring. Even now, after 15 years in the field he is always there and improving himself. In the same time we also had someone with proper formal education, and he was one of the least talented and most arrogant developers that I met until then. So it can go both ways, of course.

In the same time, I think now people just take this profession for granted. I don't like being X, I heard that being a developer pays well, so I will become one in 3 to 6 months. I wouldn't be able to be a tax consultant in one of the big 4 for example, just by reading about taxes on Udemy.