Simply put, people who only have skills without formal education will always be employees, and they may not have the opportunity to occupy certain positions, which usually require someone to meet qualifications. Unless they inherit a company from their family, the story will be different, but I think that rarely happens.
Formal education has certification and makes someone entitled to have a certain degree, which will be proof that they meet the standards desired by a company. When occupying a position, what is needed is not only skills, but a thorough understanding of how to take a policy and implement it. I imagine formal education and skills are like two sides of a coin that complement each other and are equally important.
And thats the reality on which even if you do put up yourself into a company but there's no way that you can be able to put up yourself into those higher positions. Why? Because one of the main qualifications will be that you do need a bachelors degree on which if you are someone who didnt finished up college then you would definitely be missing out that opportunity and thats why you would be that still remaining at your current position until you do get old. There might be some exemptions though and it would be that entirely depending on your boss or the company because there are certain situations that there are those who had been promoted despite on having those lack of credentials but of course it will be that not giving out guarantees that it will happen into you and thats why its always better that you should be finishing your studies first and then next trying out to hover yourself on learning up different set of skills.
A real-life example of the importance of education and qualifications is to look at the world's leading corporations today. Except for founders like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, they do not have college degrees but they are people who have studied at the most prestigious schools in the world. Meanwhile, most of the remaining CEOs of large corporations have high education and degrees.
For example, Tim Cook, he has a master's degree from Duke University and a bachelor's degree from Auburn University. Or Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who also graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree from Stanford University...I have never seen anyone without a degree and only skills who can take up important positions in corporations and companies.
It can be said that education and degrees are still extremely important in today's age. Only short-sighted people look down on degrees and think that skills alone are enough.