Isn't it more just a reflection of assessing people being very hard, so you either prefer people with some work behind them, or use a widely available metric (a degree), even if it only improves the chances of finding good people a tiny bit, because it doesn't cost you anything?
That's a factor too, and likewise you can point to things like legal liability driving pressure for employers to pick people who look good on paper.
I don't mean to suggest all credentialing is bad, obviously I would prefer doctors to have been to medical school and so on. but rent-seeking is a powerful economic force that often goes overlooked and is worth taking time to understand because it's so widespread.
> obviously I would prefer doctors to have been to medical school
I have twice had the experience of doctors (generalists) looking up symptoms on Google and picking a site - with me there. They didn't even go to a school for learning how to search on Google.
People tend to overestimate the value of credentials.
