[atomicity]

I've seen a lot of engineers that rely on their intuition and end up just creating shit that works and is surprisingly maintainable. I've also seen a lot of different ideas on what a "clear and sound thought process" is.

In fact, someone who is clear and sound in writing might get bogged down when writing code. Good writers are (obviously) not necessarily good coders.

I do think there is potential around the design doc. Design is a big part of a lot of roles. In addition, in a lot of these roles, having the "best" design isn't better than having a design that the rest of the team can understand. Still, I wouldn't do it for the purpose of identifying good "thinking". I would do it because I expect the people I hire to be good (or have potential) at what they will be expected to do.