> I think they weed out a few, but completely ignore practical development skills, work ethic, soft skills, design and architecture skills, etc.

This is the whole point of the non-coding portion of the interview, and while it’s not possible to get a full picture of this in the short amount of time allotted, it is generally enough to throw out the obvious ones.

> maybe this explains why most of the big tech companies have seemed pretty stagnant for the last decade, largely failing with products and decisions that have poor execution and market fit outside of the products that made them big in the first place

I think this is unrelated to hiring and more a result of corporate policy.