I can relate and agree with this sentiment.

Sure, not everything is applicable but the solid foundation goes a very long way.

I also see others fail at some tasks because they are not able to understand the foundations. Not saying it would be solved by going to university, but it might have helped to study it without tight deadlines and in a world where nobody has time to wait

I’ve been working in a technical field for 20 years without a degree. In my professional experience, every new college graduate that I onboard ends up needing many months of “do-with” time before they — and their fresh updated knowledge — are useful to the organization.

Why do you think apprenticeship doesn't give profound education? The idea of apprenticeship is that you are learning directly from the master, who defines the curriculum. It starts with the theory which the field requires, you just do real work instead of artificial test cases to foster the knowledge.