[hiptobecubic]

That makes it sound like a pretty terrible value, honestly. That kind of "fake it till you make it" plunging into new domains is something people often learn without spending 6 years fighting academia. In fact, your exact example is the kind of project you'd buy for e.g. a teen that likes computers.

I still the think the main value of a PhD is learning to wade through adversarial bullshit and bureaucracy and actually deliver something unless your career overlaps heavily with your research.