The BA acquired its current inflated status by accident. Advanced skills for people with brains really did get more valuable over the course of the 20th century, but the acquisition of those skills got conflated with the existing system of colleges, which had evolved the BA for completely different purposes.
Outside a handful of majors — engineering and some of the sciences — a bachelor’s degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance. Even a degree in a vocational major like business administration can mean anything from a solid base of knowledge to four years of barely remembered gut courses.
For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time – WSJ.com
The Web Development industry and the larger high tech arena have shown that knowledge in itself is more valuable than a degree many times over. How many millions, if not billions of dollars have been made by brilliant minds without formal college education? How many more could have been made in the time that others lost to courses that did not prepare them?