I noticed a correlation between homework-related and personal project-related akrasia starting toward the end of high school and seriously picking up in college. I haven't really untangled the mechanisms involved, but they do seem to feed off one another (most people screamed about priorities and refused to listen when I tried to point this out). I have not noticed that removing academic obligations has had a significant effect on my productivity (if anything, I feel like my output has slowed down since leaving college, but this may or may not be true; I could be shooting for constant productivity due to the lack of anything to fill my time, and levels could be close to normal but feel underwhelming without school to fill in the gaps.)

The main thing about the education system is not the learning; it's setting up entry into the workforce. There are useful skills to be gained from attending college, but if you don't establish connections and/or credentials for a job you have decent odds of getting, the cost might be a bit high. You could very well hone your world-impacting skills at college, but financial stability is the part you need to worry about. Especially the cost of attending college; student loans tend to last a long time if you're attending an expensive school and don't have some other means of paying.

A college degree is becoming the new high school diploma, from the sounds of it, so I'd be wary of avoiding college entirely, but cost/benefit analysis is crucial.