I think a large number of your 'self-taught' results come from the fact that developing software is a profession where you always have to be learning, or you won't be good. I have not met any programmer who has said competently (and who actually are) I know everything about X. There is always learning to do in this world, and in most cases, you are either learning as a group, on the job training, or self taught. To an extent, being self taught will fall into all of those categories. The people who show up to meet ups to learn are the ones who want to go home and experiment with new things and practice their craft. The programmers who expect to just learn something then shut off and treat their day job as a 9-5 gig are the ones who fall behind quickly and become 'bad'. This is not the industry that allows for that. For example, the Web right now is the wild west, 6 months ago you built something yet now, that's no longer the best way to do it.
Many other professions are the same way, even the doctor example. They constantly have to be learning to be great and the ones who stop 'learning' and teaching themselves are the doctors I wouldn't want to treat me.
I also see, across many professions, the ones who are at the top of their profession are the ones who have the ability to teach themselves. In college, you learn very quickly how you learn. Some students have a very hard time learning new concepts on their own, they must attend a lecture and have interaction with the professor. However, on the other side of it, some students get very little benefit from lecture. I would know, I was that way. In a lecture I would always be doing something else, that's if I even went to the lecture. I much preferred to teach myself, and when I run into something I didn't understand, I found the resources that made sense to me to understand something. This is what you have to do in the real world. Every student needs to have the ability to do this in any profession. There is no, 'I finished school, I'm done learning...'. You will be mediocre at your job at best if you have that mentality.
So yes, programming is hard, being a doctor is hard, being the top percent of ANY profession is hard.
Many "professional" educations require continued learning to maintain your license. While I don't think a "programmer license" is a good thing, a voluntary way of demonstrating this would be good
Many other professions are the same way, even the doctor example. They constantly have to be learning to be great and the ones who stop 'learning' and teaching themselves are the doctors I wouldn't want to treat me.
I also see, across many professions, the ones who are at the top of their profession are the ones who have the ability to teach themselves. In college, you learn very quickly how you learn. Some students have a very hard time learning new concepts on their own, they must attend a lecture and have interaction with the professor. However, on the other side of it, some students get very little benefit from lecture. I would know, I was that way. In a lecture I would always be doing something else, that's if I even went to the lecture. I much preferred to teach myself, and when I run into something I didn't understand, I found the resources that made sense to me to understand something. This is what you have to do in the real world. Every student needs to have the ability to do this in any profession. There is no, 'I finished school, I'm done learning...'. You will be mediocre at your job at best if you have that mentality.
So yes, programming is hard, being a doctor is hard, being the top percent of ANY profession is hard.