This premise destroys the whole argument for me: "I consider this a puzzle because I think that people who go to college decide on what to major in significantly based on two factors: earning potential and whether a field is seen as high-status."
Based on my personal experience in the late 2000s, this was not true at all. People majored in CS because they liked solving the logic puzzles CS represents regardless of salary or stays
> Based on my personal experience in the late 2000s
I think this time period is a slight outlier - for our parents the dotcom bust was recent memory and a lot were discouraged from going into the field. Mostly only those who really wanted to, like for the logic puzzles you suggest, went ahead anyway.
Based on my personal experience in the late 2000s, this was not true at all. People majored in CS because they liked solving the logic puzzles CS represents regardless of salary or stays