Since HR is far from a typical tech company's core competencies, they often don't focus on it and don't realize the damage these employees can do, both by turni

Since HR is far from a typical tech company's core competencies, they often don't focus on it and don't realize the damage these employees can do, both by turning off potential hires, and by pissing off employees. You could argue that you would not want to work for anyone dumb enough to let clowns run their HR, and I wouldn't fault you, but you might miss some otherwise good opportunities this way. I have had at least a couple of experiences where HR was not in any way indicative of the quality of the company and colleagues, except for the fact that they were too busy to put much effort into it.