bold? as long as there is no discrimination going on they can do what they want. the problem is, there is plenty of discrimination going on. maybe you don’t care because you work there. good for you. sooner or later, it will matter to you.
Discrimination against all but protected classes (eg race, religion, et c) is not only legal but standard practice; when hiring SWEs you want to discriminate against the inexperienced, those bad at code, et c.
the point here is that not everyone goes through the same recruiting process because of these programs. also, coding interviews do not test if you are a good software engineer or computer scientist. they test how well you memorized optimal solutions to problems and how quickly you can reproduce them. they also discriminate against those with anxiety or other mental issues or those who have not recently graduated. and they do not test many important skills besides writing code.
it is unfair to require leetcode bullshit interviews from candidates who apply for a job via the normal route but at the same time have programs in place where people can enter some kind of internship or training program via which they can be hired into similar positions without going through the exact same interview process. in fact, it is illegal.