As someone in the same position that the author was in (dropped out of college, have had a successful career in Silicon Valley) I can understand the allure of doing a 'speedrun' to get a degree. For one, if you want to emigrate to Europe, most work visas will require you to have a degree, no matter how many years of experience you've had in the US. You might also be tempted to do a masters or PhD in a particular topic you are interested in.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the college experience. I loved it and made friends I'm close to to this day. But sometimes you just want the paper.
I’ve considered going back to school, but eventually decided I don’t really want to do a CS degree, unfortunately there’s very little good degrees out there, accessible to people like me. I spent a good amount of time trying to find a way to “hack” the process, but no matter what, the time-cost is the real killer for me.
To be honest, I feel like the base CS degree is kind of useless to anyone who has worked in the industry for a while. But it does give you the opportunity to do an MS or PhD, which could be more interesting if there's still an academic itch you want to scratch.
They are pretty common at least in Europe, in particular if you are looking for a visa type that doesn't require a sponsor. There are ways around them - for example Spain will let you apply for a 'startup' if you are starting your own company - but kind of a bummer if you thought you could just move to Europe.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the college experience. I loved it and made friends I'm close to to this day. But sometimes you just want the paper.