There are a lot of highly paid software devs who started with no connections or college degree. This might be the hardest time to enter the field as a junior, but it's definitely not full of nepo babies. You must be thinking of finance/law.

I am going to be honest. It was probably autism and language difficulties (I wasn't good enough at French and I live in French Canada), but the job market was fucking nuts. Even with literally hundreds of applications I only got one interview that went nowhere.