It's very difficult to get financial aid when you are a part-time student. I don't know where you live, but in the US university education is absurdly expensive.
I live in the US. Some university education is absurdly expensive. In-state tuition at state universities is downright reasonable, especially for part-time students. If you're taking 8 years to finish a degree you can potentially just pay out of pocket depending on your job. I just ran the numbers for my closest state school and taking 9 credits a semester for two semesters a year (7 year graduation plan for 120 credits) you're looking at $536/mo in tuition and fees. Do a lot of parents without college degrees have $550/mo in extra cash floating around? Probably not, but this is assuming that you're basically paying as you go. If you can only save $350/mo and you save up for a couple years you'll be able to start going. My only point is that the longer you spread out tuition the easier it is to pay out of pocket, and the less likely you are to need financial aid in the first place, especially if you are focused primarily on getting an economical degree from a reasonably-priced institution.
Community college is not absurdly expensive.
Community college generally will get you a maximum of about half of a bachelor's degree (and far less than that by market value.)
It helps, but the other half isn't as cheap.
You are correct that associate's degrees are largely worthless with a few exceptions. However there is no difference in the marketability of two people, one of whom did 4 years at a college and the other who did 2 years at a CC then transferred to a college.
I got financial aid as part time. I think you only need 6-9 hours or something.