In many countries in Europe, it's common to go to a vocational school for undergrad then a research university for grad school. The system is built for mobility.
In the US, you're tracked at age 18 (largely based on what you accomplished at age 16), locked into that system, and more or less judged for life. It's not particularly surprising that so many Americans detest well-educated coastal elites.
Students in the US can only go in the institutions that admit them, but the vast majority of students can get admitted to their state school and get a decent degree.
I agree tradesman are looked down upon by degreed workers, but thats more based around having/not having an education, not the pipeline that leads people there. (Also money talks in the US, and plenty of tradespeople make way more than those with useless degrees, and therefore end up with a good social standing later in life)
124 units that make up an accredited bachelors degree is a LOT of time to learn, and you can divide this across a mix of modern technologies, computer science theory and "proper engineering", liberal arts courses, and soft skills.
Just because we have some courses that help you get a day one job doesn't make us a trade school.
A lot more on this, and our origins here - https://www.makeschool.com/vision