I have been working successfully in the technology industry as a Developer for over 10 years. I have recently left a job where I led a good-sized team of Developers and I now run my own company.
Through countless interviews and meeting with clients, I have been asked exactly 4 times about my degree and educational background. I don't have a degree. No one cares. They do care about what you have done (experience, portfolio) and what you can do for them (your value).
Information Technology is perhaps the most accessible industry:
* You have access to the exact same tools as a Senior Developer at Google. How much did you pay for Apache, PHP, Angularjs, Go, Dart, Javascript, CSS, HTML, Ruby..etc. $0. All you need is a laptop and internet connection. For a few dollars a month you could even deploy your app to the same massively powerful technology infrastructure which a Senior Google Developer uses (Google App Engine). Do you know how lucky you are to have access to the same resources?
* If you wanted to be a Lawyer or Doctor or Accountant.. you would HAVE to go to school and get a Degree. Online you can find documentation, tutorials, discussion boards.. everything you need to learn. I would rather learn online myself than accumulating tens of thousands of dollars of debt to learn the same thing.
You are focusing way too much on what you don't have.
> I'm becoming flustered of only being able to do CRUD solutions etc.
There is NOTHING stopping you from learning more than CRUD solution.
> or I should be working on a meteor.js demo for practicality
There is NOTHING stopping you from working on a meteor.js demo.
Perhaps you feel alone and feel University would provide you with the structure and guidance you need. My advice is to find a good friend who is as dedicated to learning as you are. Have your own classes twice a week with your friend where you learn something new each class. (E.g., meteor.js). Try that for 4 months. Work hard at it. After 4 months if you are not progressing, then look at University as an option.