From what I've seen, I agree about some of the grads being fantastic - the types who could have been extremely successful in a traditional college CS path if they had chosen. However, these are few and far between, the exception to the rule. Most (again, from what I can tell) really struggle, and don't have what it takes to succeed in this field (be it lack of genuine interest, focus, curiosity in technology - whatever). Add to this the fact that every company has had the "only hire the best; hiring is the most important thing in the world" mantra beat into their heads, and suddenly all of these would-be developers are far from employable. I routinely see and hear of entry level dev jobs (at small mediocre tech startups) getting over a thousand applications per role, and they reject all of them.

Some of the grads are fantastic, but not because of bootcamps. They would probably succeed only through self-teaching if they wanted. The school isn't doing them any favors besides adding a little standardized badge on their resume.

I guess traditional colleges are the same way, right? A degree is like an informal union card that says "Hey this person can sit for 4 years and take tests."

For me this was very true, yes. Though a lot of it was just the organizing of curated topics I wouldn't have known to pick up. These days you can get all of that on github though (i.e. the open source computer science education)

I mean there is a lot of value in getting a standardized badge for far less expense and time than a traditional degree.