Because cyber is a very competitive field and requires degrees, certs, and experience. A few years of cyber would only land you customer support job at best.

The hardcore coders, cyber security analyst, big bucks salary you hear so much are obtained by people with at least 10-15 years of cyber experience, in addition to certs/experience

Not universally true at all. I've had a number of young 4-6 year enlistees separate over the past few years and land very nice 6 figure jobs. All but 2 of them really hit the ground running and knocked out a Bachelors and at least 1 or 2 decent certs, but only had 4, maybe 5 years actual experience. The other 2 I mentioned had no degree and only a Security+ cert, but still somehow landed really well.