I'm not going to comment about the value of the degree to the employer. I have my own opinion and it and it has already been covered more than adequately. I want to point out the value of the degree to the developer.
When my son was in college he mentioned that a friend of his had been offered a job with a decent starting salary without the need to finish his degree. That was in 1999. The industry was flying high. I pointed out that he risked stagnation w/out the degree. It would be difficult to move to another employer w/out the paper. This meant that his current employer need not pay him commensurate to his skills. I saw it as a cynical move on the part of the company to capture talent that would then find it harder to leave. Worse, if the economy tanked. he would be competing with degreed professionals for the better jobs.
He took the work, the dot com boom turned into the dot com bust and he was out of a job. At that point he returned to school and finished his degree. Fortunately he was in a life situation where he had that kind of flexibility. Had he a family to support and perhaps a new car and mortgage to pay off, he might have been in a pickle. Lots of degreed professionals found themselves out of work at that point but I'm sure the degree gave them an advantage finding something else to do.
And just for grins, I interviewed for a position today and they *did* ask about my degree (earned in '82) and how applicable it was for the work involved. And yes, I will start Monday.