The answer to both questions is yes. A bootcamp helped me because it put me into a collaborative environment where I had some kind of obligations to show up and complete projects. Ultimately, you really only need side projects. I'm actually struggling in my job search right now, despite getting my foot in the door and doing great work for about 3 years, as having one company on my resume is not making up for my lack of newer side projects.

I go to a gym to do excercises using mainly bodyweight and perhaps three different accessories. I know how to do the excercises and I have everything I need to donit at home and save $150/month and yet I don’t.

I think it helped me because a structured curriculum with expectations really helps me to actually get the work done. The other big plus was having access to the teacher and the TAs as a resource who I could actually walk over and talk to. I definitely could have achieved the same level of understanding without attending the bootcamp but it would have taken much longer cause sometimes I'm a lazy asshole.

I found the in class experience, working with people, being able to ask an instructor who has lots of experience questions immediately HIGHLY valuable.

Half getting it, and a thing working, from some internet tutorial / classes just doesn't compare for me.

Those "Hey does that mean that X, Y, and Z would me an A, B, C? Does it work that way?" moments are key for me to grok something.

You can definitely do the stuff yourself. The difficulty in it is setting your own goals, sticking to them, and trying to do it all yourself. It's dreadfully hard most days especially since there is literally no reward for it whatsoever except for the potential of something greater.