I've worked in lots of places where having a degree was not a requirement to get hired but certainly a lot (especially bigger) companies value an education. I would say that the more accurate statement is that enough valuable work-experience can alleviate the need for a degree but degrees are far from worthless.
Some of the best as well as some of the worst developers I have worked with had no formal CS education. (The worst ones got in through biology -> bioinformatics, the best ones through gaming and setting up networks and general enthusiasm for the subject).
