I have a Ph.D. and am not in academia. The higher degree opens up opportunities for challenging positions, but you will probably need to show basic SWE capabilities also

It depends on how far out you are. Finishing what you start is always a "good" sign. That's what a lot of people look for.

With the OP, he's 4 months away from finishing his degree. In the grand scheme of life, that's a "blink of an eye". There is no point not to, and (I don't agree with this at all) people judge you differently if you have a degree vs. not.

In most goal-setting advice, Steve Jobs comes to mind, having a reputation for being a finisher is the most valuable attribute.

Employers basically hire staff to get stuff done. The rest is details about specialization, experience, skill-set, etc. All of which is rendered irrelevant if you don't get the jobs you are assigned done.

Re: a PhD -- ideally you should ask the question why you want one is before you start. Cursory research quickly reveals that academia as a career track is very challenging. You don't need a PhD to be a great SWE. A PhD is training to be a researcher and an expert in a specific field.

it's an interesting talking point but that's about it in most cases. If you can find a role where some domain knowledge is related to your PhD subject, or they need the skills a PhD requires (i.e: academic writing) then it'll be very valuable, but a PhD in most places wouldn't actually add much value in the day to day: most SWE work is nonacademic.

Thinking to my own experience, PhDs are pretty uncommon but of those I've worked with, some are brilliant, and some are terrible -- just like non-PhDs. I wouldn't consider a candidate with a PhD better than a non-PhD candidate, but then some people would love to hire someone with a PhD. I'd say on balance, it's a positive to have, but I would never recommend someone pursue a PhD as a route into a SWE role. A year of hobbyist programming experience is enough to get a SWE job.

Depends on where you are. I think in Europe it is more important than in the US.

But I see anything above Bachelors as a personal preference (with a few exceptions). If you want to finish PhD, then go for it.

If you're trying to finish a PhD program, I'd say it depends how much you want to finish. "I did a year or two and academia sucks" is a perfectly normal place to tap out, but full STEM PhD -> SWE is also pretty common. If you just spent three or four years writing specialized code to simulate or analyze your PhD topic it's quite possible to parlay that into an entry level SWE job.

I think it will help you get roles, I don't think it actually helps in doing the job, and in my personal experience has a negative correlation with being a good software engineer (not necessarily on skill, more on delivering what's actually needed).

The negative correlation is because how most PhDs do not focus on SWE skills isn't it? But that group are probably not interested in coming to SWE either.

In my experience its because they are more interested in researching interesting things, rather than delivering the project/task they are assigned to. Basically jump down every rabbit hole they can find!

Yes.