It’s regulation protecting the quality of education in the nation.

I understand and agree with that logic (although personally I have experienced excellent teachers who had no PhD). But like you said, I don’t think it is a useful criteria in research.

My personal opinion/experiences are that those that are the worst in their field are the ones that clutch onto their degrees the most and will think lowly of a mind that hasn’t amassed as much documentation

Lol yes!