Apprenticeship is no more dicey than a college degree, and requires less of a time investment. Pick the wrong college degree and you are just as screwed as if you apprentice to a dead craft. You can always re-apprentice in a new field, that's essentially how people change careers already, take a position at the bottom of the new field and work their way up. The difference with apprenticeship is that even if the trade dies the work skills, ethics, and experience remain. Contrast this to a poorly-chosen degree which cannot be usefully applied to anything else.
The thing about the museum field is that there is an extremely limited number of jobs for a large number of people who want them. They're great once you're in - but if you can't get in, there is no alternative. Even when you are in you have basically no leverage as an employee, whereas with another skill you could credibly have the option of leaving one employer for another.
On my Art History friend... yes a lack of motivation is definitely evident - and this eternal-education path that is available is a prime enabler for this behavior. In the commercial world that sort of behavior would be corrected quite quickly!
Related only vaguely to this thread, they have a relatively new program at the Guggenheim where an art doctoral students conduct free tours as part of their apprenticeship. I love that. These are really bright kids who have real enthusiasm for art.
Anyway, I'm of the mind that someone with motivation can make any degree work in the marketplace. The problem is, 99.999% of the kids are not motivated. They got into those programs because they were "easy" and now just want some job where they can show up at 9 and leave at 5.
p.s. When I say motivated, I mean highly motivated. I have something wrong with my hearing that has plagued me for years. Whenever somebody says, "Family is the most important thing," what I hear is, "I like to sit at home and watch TV."
I'd never hire somebody with those those priorities.