Another career question: Is a Computer Science B.S. or Data Science B.S. degree worth it, or should I grind out certificates?

Open to any advice you're willing to provide.

I've been working in IT since high-school. Bouncing between Helpdesk and Deskside support at different companies. I know my stuff at a helpdesk/deskside level, been doing it for way too long. Various personal decisions and financial hardships prevented me from getting my Associate of Science until I was 31 (online courses, 2-3 classes a year. A long, painful, 10 year grind). I'm 33 now, and tired of working at this level. I need to move up in IT.

I find myself in a position where I can start seriously looking into furthering my education. Given the current job market, and your various experiences, would you recommend I start on an IT related BS, or start working on the bread-and-butter certificates (A+, Net+, Google Certs, Microsoft Certs... etc).

I'm not sure where I'd like to end up in the IT hierarchy. I'm interested in learning more about Active Directories, group policies, and networking in general. I'm interested in programming and have some experience in Python, C++, and Java. I also recognize that there are a ton of different fields within IT that I haven't heard of or considered. I have considered specializing in network security, and am held back by the time it would take to acquire the necessary degrees and certificates.

Thank you for your time reading a post that I'm sure gets posted 4x a day.