Hmmm ... well, if I was going to hire, say, a chemist to work in a research lab, I need some way to identify if my candidates have the required skills/knowledge/etc. Now one way to quickly ascertain that is to see if they have a chemistry degree (or master's, PhD, whatever is necessary for the particular role). Possibly practical experience could be enough, also - I know people who have worked up through corporate labs without degrees.
However if someone comes and says "trust me, I've read a lot of papers and watched YouTube videos"... sure, they might know what they need, but how am I going to check? The point of a degree isn't necessarily just to legitimise that knowledge, it's also a stamp that says a trusted entity has confirmed you have those skills and knowledge. I'm not saying it's perfect, but there is a purpose to the whole institution.
You're a vampire, you realise that your eternal existence is about to come to an end, finally. The ash and fire will today grant you your well deserved rest. You wish only to die sated of your endless thirst - you dash into the nearest house. A man huddles in a room. He's afraid, for once it is not of you. In an instant, it is done, and his lifeblood fills your mouth in one last ecstatic moment as the ash pours through the windows and the stinging heat begins to claim your skin.
But it is not enough. The curse of immortality is strong, and the ash, while choking, is not hot enough to truly burn your body. You live on, changed, hardened into a block of stone, buried. And you wait. A year turns to a decade, a century. You pray to lose your mind, but the curse is stronger even than madness. Your torment seems endless as the centuries turn then to millennia.
And then... The ash above you is cleared. Hope, at last! Surely the people of this new age will see your final crime, bad understand! Surely, they will know your cursed form needs to be destroyed once and for all!
You can barely make them out, as they prowl around your stony shell.
"Hey man, you think they were gay or just bros?"
Your torment continues.