I guess I didn't address the culinary school thing at all. I went to college and studied Philosophy, Business and Information Security (weird combo I know) and my degrees are in business, so I didn't go to culinary. The business degrees have been good but I went back when I was older having already been a chef for many years. I started out as a dish dog and worked my way up to Exec of a company that had many properties. Over the decades I hired a lot of culinary grads and a lot of self taught cooks. So here's my perspective.
Let me put the last part first- you'll get out what you put in. My niece went to LCB after they lost their accreditation. So not a great school. And she didn't put in the work, when she got to her externship she was late so many times that she didn't get enough hours to get her diploma. Within a year she was out of the industry and working as a nanny. Don't do that! On the other hand some of my chef buddies went to decent-to-good schools and worked hard. It worked out pretty well for some of them but mostly they're at about the same level as I am professionally.
It depends on your age, your personality and what you want to do. If you're focused you can learn a lot in school. If you're committed you can learn a lot just working. As a chef doing the hiring I don't much value new grads if they don't have experience to go along with it. You can't learn to slash and burn in school, you need experience. But that doesn't mean I won't hire them, just that if I need a platoon leader it's gonna be a guy that's been in the trenches.
That said, you'll get a well rounded culinary education from a good school. In the beginning I learned what my Chef needed me to be able to do. It was the needs of the business not my personal enrichment. To get the skills I wanted and the knowledge I craved I had to do a lot of work on my own. Buying books, watching videos, etc. A lot of that will depend on what kind of market you're in and where you live & work. You could work at Perkin's or Hooters for 20 years and never learn what roux is (I'm guessing, don't know their menu well). If you don't go to school you'll need to get lucky and land a gig in a good place where you can learn. and you might have to be willing to keep moving around from job to job once you've run out of things to learn. If you go that route, keep in mind that you're not just learning skills, you're building a resume. If you app comes across my desk and you've worked 12 places in the last year and a half your app is going in the Round File (aka the trash can).
Finally even graduating from a good school will probably mean you make $9-$12/hour after graduation. Yeah, you might land a better job and if you live in a place where wages are higher you'll start higher. A degree or diploma might get you in the door but you'll still have to work your way up the ladder.
Just a few observation from a few decades on this ride.