Yeah, I’m all against gatekeeping too. If I called myself a scientist and I didn’t have a degree (yet) would I still be recognized as a scientist? That’s all I’m saying. So long as you identify as one and pursue it, you’ll become one. If you do the courses and earn it then welcome to the fold. I am not about to call myself an astrophysicist simply because I have an affinity for space and know the classifications of stars. That’s my point.
I think there's a lot of fuzziness about all of this.
Calling yourself a surgeon without all the medical degrees and certifications is ... alarming.
Calling yourself a scientist -- while it does imply a stereotype academic type in a white coat -- to me means you have an inquiring mind about the natural and physical world, that you observe carefully, that you experimentally test things, and you are prepared to change your mind based on evidence. Anyone can be a scientist: even a 10 year old.
It impressed me that on radio station Triple J in Australia, every Thursday they'd do a phone-in show with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki who would answer science questions. He would dignify everyone with a question by calling them "Doctor" in a kind of tounge-in-cheek way, and would give a prize if they'd done an experiment to test aspects about the question they had, and would use the phrase "you've done an experiment".
He really did a lot to bring the idea that science was not some far-away esoteric thing you need a degree for, but something that was in every-day life and anyone could do.
The sooner I called myself a scientist in life, the better.