I'll bite: is education not about starting with theoretical summary of the knowledge in the domain, and then applying it in practice and really feeling it work, be challenging, or not work?
The best educators I had had exactly that approach: you sometimes start with theory, but other times with challenges which make you feel the difficulty, and understand the value of the theory you are co-developing with the educator (they just have the benefit of knowing exactly where we'll end up, but when time allows, they do let you take a wrong turn too). Even if you start with theory, diving into a challenge where you are allowed not to apply the learnings should quickly tell you why the theoretical side makes sense.
As with everything in life, great educators are few but once you have them, you can apply the same approach yourself even if the educator is unable to steer you the right way.
If you never received this type of education, then what you received could arguably be called a waste of time.
Some people manage to go through the whole education system without learning much, others go through exactly the same program and learn a ton, way more than required.
Guess which of those people say education is a waste of time.
Basic Education is about bringing the average up, make sure everyone can read and do basic math etc. Beyond that it's the same thing just at a higher level. Most people who graduate with a bachelors of computer science or similar won't be great programmers. That's why we call them great, they're better than the rest. Most people don't have greatness in them. No amount of education can change that. Those who do have what it takes will naturally succeed because that's who they are. They will study and do the required material and when they're done with that they will spend their free time learning even more because they want it. Some will do so even without a formal education but I don't think that's the case for most.
If you manage to go through 3-5+ years where your only job is to learn stuff, without learning stuff, then you have no one to blame but yourself.
And if you can do it without going to university, go ahead. I'm pretty sure the failure rate for that path is a lot higher but it's certainly an option.
The best educators I had had exactly that approach: you sometimes start with theory, but other times with challenges which make you feel the difficulty, and understand the value of the theory you are co-developing with the educator (they just have the benefit of knowing exactly where we'll end up, but when time allows, they do let you take a wrong turn too). Even if you start with theory, diving into a challenge where you are allowed not to apply the learnings should quickly tell you why the theoretical side makes sense.
As with everything in life, great educators are few but once you have them, you can apply the same approach yourself even if the educator is unable to steer you the right way.
If you never received this type of education, then what you received could arguably be called a waste of time.