[musicale]

> You can deep dive into any subject on your own, today, and build yourself into a world-class expert

The down sides are significant and should be considered very carefully.

However, universities can sometimes be attractive and motivating work environments, especially if you are tired of tech companies and startups and don't need or care about the money you'd get from working there. As noted, you can try an MS (ideally completing a master's thesis which is something like a mini-dissertation) and see if it's something you like.

And I don't know how it is in your company, but sometimes interesting research jobs in industry are easier to get if you have a graduate degree.