to be honest, I think this has more to do with the way a lot of companies interview. I was probably a much stronger interviewee immediately after graduating college than I am now after having worked in the field for half a decade. I'm a much more skilled developer now though. I don't read textbooks in my free time, so if I end up in an interview where they are asking me textbook questions I'm not going to do as well. I had an interview recently for a senior dev role and they were asking me things like, "what are the 4 pillars of OOP?", and I thought to myself, "Off the top of my head, IDK, but it sounds like something I probably learned in school."

edit: I guess you're more so comparing people with degrees vs. those without so my response would better fit under the parent comment. basically all I'm saying is yes, 10 years experience does mean something in this field, but if your interview style isn't picking up on that then your interview process is broken.