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> if so many people can do so many important jobs with nobody noticing they never went to a university, what's their "education" good for?

I think you're asking the wrong question. I think the better question is "are those jobs really that challenging and/or important that they require a university education?"

When nothing goes wrong, even the head of FEMA can have absolutely no background in emergency response.

I don't think that's fair. My computer science education was seriously enriched by the community of students and professors at Stanford, even if I could have learned the basic material mostly on my own.

Same, though my experience is subject to selection bias; I'm an MS student, so I only tend to meet grad students and the more motivated undergrads (the ones who take grad classes or the ones who care enough to come to my office hours).

Despite having a BS in CS, I've still learned a lot about computer science at Stanford, and (thanks to the ridiculous amount TAs get paid here) I've had to pay very little for my degree.

This is a screening problem, it's not a problem with the education that acreditted universities give.

Your experiences at Stanford might not be the same as everyone else's.