Degree-less person here and vehemently disagree. Maybe across the field in general, but some of the most interesting areas of work have Ph.Ds and/or significant levels of domain experience as gatekeepers.
Even better: get into the PhD program and then drop out. You have all the signalling of being selected in a fancy PhD, but it also shows that you're practical and interested in work and industry.
Anec-data: me and several other PhD folks who all dropped out of CS/Stats/ML and got plenty of offers for jobs and funding. :)
Generally speaking, you should get the qualifications you need for the job you want. If you want to be a software developer or program manager, a B.Sc. is sufficient and a PhD is overkill and a waste of time. If you want to be an academic or a scientist in industry, a PhD is essentially required.
I probably should have written in German-speaking countries.
I never understood the "reputation" component in the UK education that also made it to QS rankings where Oxbridge are propelled by near perfect reputation while lacking in other, more-academic categories.
If you are looking for one more thing for your CV, don't bother with phd.