[tjradcliffe]

And why don't they count the cost of good candidates who simply drop out of their hiring pool entirely, because they can't be arsed to bone up on the easily gamed idiotic hiring process?

I'd never even apply to Google based on the stories I've heard, and I'm sure there are plenty of others in the same position who are even better at what they do than I am. There are just so many stories out there of how crappy the hiring process is that everyone who's any good must have heard about it. Some significant fraction will have said, "Yep, not for me."