Recently I had a conversation with someone who has been featured in Kaggle leaderboard(top 1%) telling 'CS background isn't helpful for Machine Learning'.[1]

I believe that he didn't understand what Computer Science actually is, besides having a degree in it. I'd say it's because of the educational system, where one could attain a degree without actually qualifying in it.

In under developed/developing economies if only qualified people get their degrees, then only a fraction would get their jobs and it would be very bad for that economy and so bad educational systems are by design.

[1] https://twitter.com/heavyinfo/status/1209330850363404288