It's not "good" versus "bad" engineer/coworker. It's a different way of functioning. Some people (I'd guess introverts, although I'm not sure) need to internal

It's not "good" versus "bad" engineer/coworker. It's a different way of functioning. Some people (I'd guess introverts, although I'm not sure) need to internalize to think and can't interact much at this point. Some can think and discuss at the same time. From these two sets of people, some can afterward verbally explain the reasoning and the solution, some can't. Some may also only require a context warm-up. That makes 4 sets of people already. "Technical" phone interviews that screen candidates that can solve whatever riddle, filter for a very specific set of people. Not necessarily the best in any context. But a specific set that works for them. Just admit/accept it.