I've met many self-taught programmers, and they were great to work with. Some were extremely productive and knew the inside and outside of certain languages and libraries. However, they still wrote code that nested 5 loops, or put data in arrays when they needed a linked list, or invented complex algorithms to solve something that a simple graph would do, or didn't understand the basics of linear algebra, number theory, and statistics. Degrees in CS can be extremely valuable.
I don't know. If you have a CS degree, you will at least have passing familiarity with these things. Seeing them in practice or discussing them will at least stimulate some old memory synapses. Whereas, in contrast, someone without a CS degree usually would have to start at point zero.
I guess it depends on the sub-specialty of programming though.
