For an engineering discipline getting a college degree is almost always a requirement for getting a real job. This means that practically for a lot of people college is largely intended to be training for their job, so it makes sense why they get frustrated when it doesn't actually train them for it.

To pull my personal experience in college was frustrating because I didn't feel like I had much control over what I wanted to learn because college had their idea of a "liberal education" (which didn't match up with mine) and in a modern job market I had little choice but to attend.

If you mean like a licenced engineer, a PE or something, then sure, a degree is required. But if you mean someone in the computer industry, as the word is usually used in these parts? A degree is a substitute for a few years of experience, If you can learn the Material in question.