What does industry interviewing process have to do with academics? Is there some history I don't know where it was pushed by academics?
I think it's just a runaway process where some metric that's easy to measure was chosen, and it's become a worse metric that's more burdensome on candidates every year as it has become more and more gamed.
During dotcom boom, you had PG recruiting student founders out of undergrad, and also students at rich-kid schools with no experience getting investor money forced into their hands.
So, led by students, you were stuck with a student's idea of what software development is about. Which was heavily influenced by their classes thus far (and unaware that, traditionally, a new college grad is usually not much use until mentored).
Then, pretty soon, "tech" jobs became seen as a big-money career, which meant gatekeeping and smugness.
I think it's just a runaway process where some metric that's easy to measure was chosen, and it's become a worse metric that's more burdensome on candidates every year as it has become more and more gamed.