The lateral entry that most people miss

A diploma is not a terminal qualification. Lateral entry lets a diploma holder join a degree programme partway through rather than starting at the beginning, which turns the vocational route into a slower, cheaper, more employable path to the same degree rather than a departure from it.

This changes the arithmetic entirely. Somebody who takes a diploma, works, and then enters a degree laterally can arrive at the same qualification with less debt and three years of actual work behind them. Whether that is better depends on the person. It is certainly not obviously worse, which is how it is usually presented.