Why do we feel the need to hard-code educational paths? If someone coming out of high school would like to pursue a startup idea now and attend university after that, I don't see a problem with that.
Saying that we need to "cope with quite a few 29 year olds with zero higher education" is like saying we need to cope with a ton of 18 year olds with no higher education. "Coping with people with no higher education" is precisely what higher education is for.
Because we have some idea of what the reliable paths to a stable career are. It's not a perfect understanding, but I'm confident that college is a better default choice than "found a startup."
> If someone coming out of high school would like to pursue a startup idea now and attend university after that, I don't see a problem with that.
Where are these high-school graduates going to get the money for a startup? "Found a startup" is an option chiefly for kids with connections to disposable wealth. Taking on real debt for such foolishness is an even worse idea than loading up on student loans to go to college.
Is it really though? There's a whole system set up to service the former, not really the latter.