If you’re getting quality hires with take homes, doesn’t that mean that even if theres filtering going on, its still effective to a degree as opposed to being totally arbitrary?
A lot of people have a strange sort of amnesia where they forget anything that doesn't support their preconceptions. I've had conversations that go like this:
"Our interview process is perfect! We've never had a bad hire."
"What about that guy we hired to rewrite our engine? The ex-googler? We had to fire him after a month."