The real story is about lifetime earnings and related outcomes in pension/Roth/401k and in health benefits.

Not that there's nothing here: Degree is over-valued as a life goal in a time where we no longer really value tertiary education the way we should, and charge the kind of for-profit costs (and loan tail) to get one.

Many non-degree career paths incur significant OHS risk and limits to your work life as a fit adult. Some degree paths to too: Physiotherapists cannot go on doing that kind of body-manipulation work forever without an effect on themselves, but if you plot lifetime earnings in medical against construction labour, it gets complicated fast.