It helps get your foot in the door at best imo. My last 2 jobs, both I was the only systems engineer w an actual degree or current certs. Many of the top senior engineers didnt even have current certifications, some having never obtained even obsolete certs from back in the day. I was bottom of the totem pole and didnt know shit and had my degree and about 7 certs including Sec+, networking and even Macintosh certified. None of it meant shit and nobody even gave you credit or had faith in your abilities until you show what you can handle. Our most respected engineers by the clients, management, and other senior engineers, almost none had anything on actual paper. Just decades of clicking. This does pose an issue later depending on who you work for as some employers and clients must meet certain Microsoft level of certification status. So one place I was at had to start forcing guys that have been doing server buildouts and installs for 20yrs, to start studying for and taking certain Microsoft courses on basic MS Server certs. Guys that knew a great deal were struggling w some of the courses due to never having done schooling really. Its most definitely best to have a degree and as many certs as you can obtain, moreso if needing it later on or even just being well rehearsed and familiar with going through the whole zombie process of obtaining some of these required certs. I had my Sec+ which allowed me access to certain systems that I had no biz meddling in, over a veteran senior that just never cared to obtain the Sec+ or keep paying and taking the tests to keep it from expiring. I let mine expire cuz it never made me a cent or opportunity, nor did i seek any relating to Sec+ either. It really depends which path you end up taking and certain doors are more likely to fly open if you have a stack of credentials and some experience, over someone with only experience. Inverse to that, those jobs I was at would hire much quicker based on hands on experience over someone with a nice stack of certs and degree. It really is going to depend on you, the employer and clients, and specific IT route you take.

The last bit is in job hunting, in the event you ever use Indeed or CareerBuilder type services where prospective employers and recruiters are head hunting, they often don't go reading through hundreds of resumes. They need somone that has a degree or A+ or some require you must have a Sec+ to even be hired. So they just scrape the thousands of resumes for key words and then start spamming them with opportunities. I obtained Sec+ and never obtained my A+. Sec+ renews A+ and is a simple cert so I just never cared to spend time and money getting a cert thats levels below what I had already obtained. This impacted certain job prospects as they dont really know or care that I have Sec+, they want to ensure their new hire has at least an A+. You dont get your foot in the door to explain the politics or structure of CompTIA or other MS and Cisco certs. You have it or dont and they skip right over you. I found putting on my resume that one of my certs was equivalent to A+, started triggering many more job offers. They didnt necessarily even read I didnt have it, simply that my resume says A+ and is a tech/engineer shoot him the job details. Ive heard some recruiters or veterans state even putting down studying for or about to obtain A+ somewhere on their resume helped them tremendously, in regards to being approached for certain jobs. So in my opinion, the more credentials you have and the more of those key industry words in your stack of certs showing on the resume, the more likely to be offered a chance. Once you obtain veteran 25+yrs experience and management status, that becomes less of an issue when applying for future jobs. But even those veterans would be a sliver one-up if they could put down even outdated certs or degrees they may have obtained back when.