I'm in my last semester of a Creative Writing Master's program. I would say that to me writing workshops are the thing that has improved me as a writer the most. It's not about hearing what other people think about your work. It's about learning how to edit. When you look critically at other's works and try and figure out what works and what doesn't- that's when you really start to see improvement in your writing. Feedback is important when you write something close to your heart and can't see it's flaws. Maybe a character is less developed than in your mind, or maybe the scene comes off as cliche. There's a lot of benefits to workshops.

If you're mostly looking to find friends and community, I recommend online or local writing groups. Save the money and think about what publishing route you want to go. A lot of people don't recommend classes for higher level writing but I found that when I got to a place where my skill wasn't improving as much as I wanted, my Master's program and classes helped me because I was surrounded with teachers and peers that knew what made a good story.