Well, to mention, I agree with you that engineers without degrees can be awesome. I've interviewed a couple hundred engineers and reviewed thousands of resumes, and when I see people without degrees I look for really solid experience and/or lots of personal projects that show what they've done/experienced. Often those candidates turn out to be just as good engineers in the long-run, and sometimes better since they've come this far without needing a degree in a college-focused career path.

That being said, I think you're misunderstanding a bit what a degree conveys and why it's attractive to companies.

For one, it gives you a grade against some sort of scale that can be used to measure general aptitude. Even if GPA isn't a score from a truly ideal "test", it's a known quantity and you can roughly gauge what that number means. Yet comparing a GPA of "3.6" against "dropped out of school and studied programming" is really hard to do-- the GPA gives you a rating from an accredited university of scholars about how much that candidate studied, learned and worked. The other is just one person's word with some rough and hard to verify guidance you might be able to get from references (and/or your own research).

If someone were looking across listings to buy a good race horse, it's a gamble for them to take the seller's word (and do their own independent research) that the "horse is wicked fast" no matter how many times you said you personally timed it. The average buyer would be more inclined to go after the documented/well-known winners from public races. Now, we all know that's not necessarily the most profitable strategy, but it is usually a safe one. Those that ignore the other candidates risk missing a "sleeper" that really can shake things up, but that's part of the game.

So your strategy should be to look for those companies that are willing to take those chances rather than worrying so much about the ones that filter everything by institution and GPA. I also advise you to approach them in some way that shakes up their expectations a little anyway (e.g. sending them your resume printed on rolled scrolls, handing it to them in-person at some interesting event, through a respected employee, etc). You want them to think about you differently, so give them a reason to think you're a clever puppy outside the mold that they might have missed otherwise. If you only approach them like the other candidates do, it's not surprising that they'd grade you against the same criteria for the other candidates.

It's also important to keep in mind that bachelor degrees don't just convey "Computer Science". They also convey all of the other non-CompSci courses that you need to graduate. It's a general show of discipline across courses and studies with one of the biggest being written communication. If you don't have a degree, it would be awesome to also provide them examples that you've written (white papers/essays/speeches/etc) to help show that you're a well-rounded candidate that doesn't just know how to sit behind a computer and code. I promise you that's not all they're looking for.

You also have the fun option of showing them all up and just starting your own business. Here are just a few that didn't make it through college and changed the entire world:
http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2008/04/14/Bril...

Best of luck to you.