Is it smart nowadays to go to a community college first and then transfer ?

[badgolfer]

CC’s in Calif are mostly the domain of kids that want to give education one last shot before quitting

I highly doubt this. The 4 year graduation rate for a transfer student starting in a CCC is remarkably similar to one going directly to a 4 year UC (see page 29 http://ucop.edu/transfer-action-team/transfer-action-team-report-2014.pdf).

You are talking apples and oranges.

Of the kids that do transfer, they do well as the link you gave said. However most never transfer.

With 11 million students, community colleges are home to 45 percent of the collegiate population in the United States. The report found 81.4 percent of students who enter community colleges for the first time planned to obtain a bachelor’s degree in the future, but just 11.6 percent achieved that goal.
Community College Students Often Fail To Achieve Bachelor's Degree: Study | HuffPost College

The system’s transfer rate isn’t good. Only 23 percent of California’s degree-seeking community college students transfer within six years, according to the Campaign for College Opportunity.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/08/californias-two-year-colleges-roll-out-transfer-degrees-while-lawmakers-consider

The UC graduation rate for kids entering as frosh is 83% according to http://accountability.universityofcalifornia.edu/index/chapter/4

If only 23% of CC kids transfer to a 4-year college (and not all of them graduate) the numbers are not remarkably similar.