I suspect you are reacting to only some of the comments.  Quite a few people have said that degrees aren't essential although some degrees do help.  I certainly don't believe that degrees in CS are essential, and anyone who does is rather obviously wrong - quite apart from people like you and Jeff being two pretty good examples of people who succeeded without CS degrees I did damned well as a professional Computer Scientist and Engineer without a degree in it, and Ted Codd did a damned sight better than I did also without any degree in CS.