I'm not saying that there's no "benefit" to these restrictions. It's just that (1) they address problems that can be easily solved otherwise, and (2) they come with substantial negative side effects -- like turning away any candidates with a shred of self-respect and/or some notion of their true worth (even as a fresh engineering grad) on the open market.
"turning away any candidates with a shred of self-respect and/or some notion of their true worth"
Given that this thread seems to be fairly split on this issue (at least at the time I'm writing this) this seems like a bit unfair to say. Personally, I wouldn't give a shit, and I like to think that I have at least some self-respect.