[epcoa]

Well I do know, and I have close associates with very mundane qualifications, masters from non T50 school in a CS related but not CS field, working for non-FAANG large corporation as "senior" (think 2-3 yr exp) IC with good legal of course that obtained an O-1. I also know those with T30 masters degree, much more impressive on paper but working for at the time some dumb startup that were denied. They are now doing something extraordinary outside the country.

Sorry but the definition of extraordinary qualification is very capricious to make the claim about it being "hard" a bit meaningless. There are a lot of factors, but it isn't necessarily hard to obtain.