The engineers doing the interviews certainly have no financial incentives either way... Recruiters make contact and did a preliminary "do you have a pulse" conv

The engineers doing the interviews certainly have no financial incentives either way... Recruiters make contact and did a preliminary "do you have a pulse" conversation, and then shepherd the process, but don't have input into the decisions along the way. Their incentive is thus to find great candidates who they think will make it through the process.