It's sad when the most impressive thing about a candidate is that they went to School X.
It's impressive when a candidate has done interesting / difficult things despite a lack of degree.
You've bet on yourself to pull through these past 20 years and you've won. You're going to be fine without it.
You may also never be fully accepted culturally, since one of the major advantages of going is that you're the "right" sort of person (meaning that you have the correct socio-economic background and understand/speak corporate-derived "elite meritocratic culture") / you're able to build a high-quality network of well-connected peers who themselves are part of the socio-economic elite.
It's also what you make of it. Sure your degree may give you an easier entry to robotics, but it doesn't mean you need one to get in. It's just the most standard way of getting in, but there are other ways of getting in.
Also, 4 years is still a lot of time not working on 'real projects' if your career is 20-30 years.
Because of coding bootcamps and other stuff, we're already seeing less people going to 4 year programs and more doing 2-4 semester intensive courses. At least in the software industry, I think it's going to be like apprenticeships in the future. Apparently it's more common in Europe like Germany. Shopify's CEO (Tobias) did some sort of apprenticeship program like that.
I went to the University of Nebraska (not an Ivy league). I dropped out.
My clothes are usually wrinkled, my hair is never combed. Some may mistake me for a homeless person on the right day.
But I've done open source work. I've spoken at RailsConf twice. I have a good tract record.
I have no idea who this "socio-economic elite" is that you refer to, but in general, if you want to make money as a software engineer, you don't need a fancy degree.
If you want to make money, you need to learn how to sell yourself and constantly put yourself out there. No university is ever going to teach you this.