My friends go to college and instantly get internships because they're students but I apply to every (remote) internship possible and nothing because 99% of them have a requirement that you have to be a student.

Am I wrong to think that I'm more valuable than a student fresh in college? I've built things, I've been working my ass off learning, why not give me a chance!?!?

Sometimes it is because labor laws say you can have unpaid student interns, but otherwise you'd need to pay at least minimum wage.

I've been on the other end of this, so I'll share. It probably depends on the type, we had students join our company for a year in industry as part of their degrees. Those were students only. The thing to bear in mind is that you are not necessarily a "net positive contributer" to the team, by which I mean is "the work you contribute" greater than "the time needed to support you".

If you're only there for 4 weeks, you're almost certainly a drain on company resources (sounds harsh, I'm sorry). It takes significant time to on-board you, explain our systems, get your coding standards up to scratch. And even then, if you join as an intern, you are by definition not expected to perform to the same level as professionals.

By the end of a year, you've probably become a net positive contributor, but taking that burden on is a lot of risk. But still, we gave students meaningful but long term projects. If they became more immediate, I'd join the project to get it off the ground. I was probably involved anyway, teaching and supporting.

Students tended to require lower salaries (because it was part funded by uni), we were involved with the unis so also knew what to expect, and we also sponsored a uni coding club, so would often hire from there because we knew them and knew their code.

I get your frustration. I currently want to change disciplines, but there's a very steep barrier to entry.

I dont know any first semester student in cs field that gets a internship, most companys accept them in the third or fourth, but not earlier.