Absolutely, at the highest levels, where you are doing research, working with researchers, and working in labs, then you definitely want brilliant researchers h

Absolutely, at the highest levels, where you are doing research, working with researchers, and working in labs, then you definitely want brilliant researchers hired for their research background. I just don't think that's true for the majority of undergraduate or even graduate students. And (I think), universities are very good at hiring for research ability. Hiring for teaching ability they are not good at, even when they intend to.