I don't have application demographics in front of me, but I'd wager that you're correct, most people without a degree don't apply to that position.
However, that doesn't actually speak to what I was saying. My claim refers to the population of non-formally educated developers as a whole.
You might fall into the small portion of the population where you do have the requisite knowledge and skill. However, I think you're missing key element to recruiting, that took me a long time myself to understand.
Recruiting is a numbers game. Finding good people is hard, but the best way to find them is A) have competitive compensation, and B) volume. If the signal to noise ratio of college educated applicants is 50:1 and the ratio for non-college educated applicants is 100:1, then as long as there isn't a shortage of college applicants, it improves the recruitment process to require a college degree.
However, that doesn't actually speak to what I was saying. My claim refers to the population of non-formally educated developers as a whole.
You might fall into the small portion of the population where you do have the requisite knowledge and skill. However, I think you're missing key element to recruiting, that took me a long time myself to understand.
Recruiting is a numbers game. Finding good people is hard, but the best way to find them is A) have competitive compensation, and B) volume. If the signal to noise ratio of college educated applicants is 50:1 and the ratio for non-college educated applicants is 100:1, then as long as there isn't a shortage of college applicants, it improves the recruitment process to require a college degree.