Although I rarely, if ever click on the logo in gmail, I do believe in the "logo should be a link to the root" convention. Surely that's just UI design 101, right?
The twitter one you mentioned in the article drives me super crazy as well.
I haven't been in a similar situation, but from my experience jumping jobs quite a few times in the tech space, degrees don't matter as much as experience.
If you've been at the company for a long while like it sounds and you know what would be good for the company as far as product development goes, I'd say moving into a role where you can actually optimize those processes is a great position for you to be in! Good luck in your new role..