Agreed, but I see the impulse to standardize as the source of a lot of the problems people have — by people, I mean both good engineers, and the companies who can't hire them.
This process still relied on screening, including technical screens. The biggest difference is that it substituted a day of whiteboard interviews with a day of pairing, which we found to produce better results, and candidates really liked too.
Apple used to have a per team interview process(don’t know if it has changed). While the interview experience can vary a lot, there are certain pockets/teams that are spectacularly brilliant and have the freedom to maintain the bar & conduct targeted hiring.
