Data science is one of the few fields where a physics degree does have at least some comparative advantage. In any engineering field, a hiring manager with a choice between an engineering graduate and a physics graduate is always going to choose the engineering graduate because they have specific training in the field. Part of the myth propagated by physics departments is that learning to solve a bunch of general problems will somehow make you qualified to solve very specific problems.
The real myth is that schools actually prepare you for specific problems on the job, as you have asserted. I have helped hire people before and I would say that schools do very little good specialized training. Almost everything learned in engineering school is going to be at best tangential to the problems actually experienced in industry, to the point where there is little difference between an engineering degree and a physics degree, especially in a field that is close to physics (electrical engineering, radio engineering).
I think that is a bit extreme but I agree with one thing. If school does not teach job related knowledge but it somehow makes it easier to learn skills on the job later on then isn't it actually just an indirect measure of motivation or intelligence?
The advantage formal education confers is merely making those stand out among the other applicants.
