Most of what we do doesn't require a CS degree. Among the best devs/IT workers I've worked with, non-degree holders are over-represented. I don't have a CS degree (I have a Mech E degree).

Nonetheless, if a company has got a load of not-difficult programming that it needs done, they're probably still going (and will be well-served) to hire someone with a college degree. Why? Because completing a degree shows you can follow directions, are basically compliant to a framework of rules, can doggedly pursue something over multiple years when the payoff isn't obviously tied to each day's effort. It's not needed, but it's also not insane to think that companies prefer college grads.

Given how many different technologies/languages/frameworks an average developer has to learn over his career isn‘t a solid background in the fundamentals worth more than 3 years intense focus on one such set?

That‘s not to say that going through uni without having heard of git is the sign of a good program, I don‘t consider my program to be all that great but at least I had to go through two labs that required us to build software from scratch using git or svn.