In my opinion all degrees are completely worthless.
A degree is just a piece of paper issued by a corporation. If you own a corporation you can legally issue degrees for whatever you want.
IMHO degrees are a necessary evil of society.
In the past a University education was the privilige of only a few. In the middle ages Universities were places where a chosen few went to study and were conferred degrees. The courses of study tended to be pedagogical, which is to say they were highly theoretical and not necessarily of practical necessity. Theology, classics, arts and science were the main activities of scholars in that era. Medicine was studied, as was Law but medical doctors were mostly used by wealthy aristocrats. Common people tended to be treated by barbers, who were tradesmen and served apprenticeships. Hospitals were operated by nuns who were the first nurses.
Degrees then as now were granted by Universities and Colleges to show a proficiency in something. A Master's degree is similar to the title of Master granted to tradesman.
Now its noteworthy that until recently, many trades and professions did not require formal education. Even today you can take the bar examination in California without a formal degree (though passing is a different story.) Many states and countries differ over other professional requirements. I do happen to know that in some states you can take an Architectural exam with only an associates degree, though your apprentiship is much longer than if you have a four year degree.
I also know that many well known lawyers including Abraham Lincoln, Clarence Darrow and others did not attend Law School. Frank Lloyd Wright never attended Architectural school. The school he founded was not recognized by the American Institute of Architects, at least not for a long time after its founding.
In this day and age, however there seems a great move towards enforcing some standard of conformity. Most trades and professions have professional licensing requirements. And many which do not have industry wide certifications which are practically required to ply one's trade.
I know a few exceptions to this. Information Technology, due to its very nature does not have licensing requirements. There are some certifications available (Cisco, Microsoft, CompTIA etc) but this is not always a necessity and some of the best professionals in this industry do not have any formal education in that field or certification.
But to get to the original question, I see formal higher education as being a practical necessity in this day and age.