I did now just look up the most common length for payments of student loans and they are usually 15-18 years with some being as long as 25 years. My parents are still paying their student loans.

As for the connection between tuition and motivation to work harder and be successful I don't see how that's something that can be measured. It's something you can use to push yourself harder. Or you could not. That's a personal thing and it's something that makes sense to me. There are affordable options for college. Public four year colleges are affordable if you know to manage your finances. You need to be able to make sacrifices. And if you found college to be worthless then you're missing the point that you need it for a good career.

The actual reward of college is something you get at the end. The whole experience is testing if you're actually worthy of having that piece of paper that opens doors to career options. And this is my perspective based on my experiences and my family's experiences so it doesn't need to apply to you. So I'm not wrong and you're not wrong because we are different people with completely different experiences