You don't have to be some string algorithms weenie, but the kind of people who "absolutely hated" algorithms problems in my experience, some of it personal and some of it vicarious, are bad at making architectural decisions with far-reaching consequences. It's overlapping subject matter which uses the same kind of aptitude. It's not that to be good at architectural decision-making you need to be prepped for an emergency Google Code Jam.
A more charitable interpretation is that they absolutely hated "constant internship interviews".
In my experience, algorithm interviews aren't even very good at measuring aptitude for algorithms. Recent study and aptitude for the format have too much influence. Asking candidates about architecture has been much better at predicting their aptitude for architecture.
I don't necessarily disagree with that -- what kicked off my reply was the statement, "Honestly, it sounds like you may be geared more towards software architecture rather than software development." (And, you know, rereading that sentence removes any doubt I had about the correctness of my initial response.)
If you can rigorously ask architecture questions, and don't let people get away with hand-waving, that sounds fine. I've been asked good architecture questions and I've been badly asked bad architecture questions too, so... it depends on the question, and how you ask.
