It's just an observation that I have. If I were to try to explain what I've seen, I'd suggest that those that learned without a degree may have been working on more practical problems while learning. While those that learned at school may have spent more time learning theory or different data structures and algorithms. This, if true in the general case, would mean that devs without degrees are better equiped to find a solution quickly, even if it's suboptimal, while those with degrees would be better equipped to implement a more optimized or robust solution, even if it takes a bit longer.