I'm sure I felt like this when I was jazzed at how easy it felt to get my first good job with just a BS. After a few times through the job switch ringer at this point I'm rather bored of it and would much prefer to have a widely respected professional accreditation to point to instead of all the repeated pointless work. But I don't think the extra-school way (like in my nursing school example) is the only way to achieve that; what I would personally like to see is an apprenticeship / craftsman model. I think a PE requires both a master's degree and apprenticeship. Maybe we could do the latter without the former?

But this is idle wishing: the current system likely has to much inertia for real change at this point.