In my case the effect of getting a PhD was extremely positive. I felt a huge difference in attitude at work to doctors (I worked for a couple of top big american software companies), basically allowing doctors to do whatever they liked as long as it's related to the product. And that's in the product group, I'm not even talking about the labs.
I can safely say that I feel much more positively about the value of my PhD now than I did when I was finishing it; some part of it is increased emotional distance ("time heals all wounds...", etc.), but I think that a larger part of it is that I've had more time to reflect on the experience and am able to more rationally evaluate what I got from it (and what it cost me, in terms both financial and otherwise).