Where does it treat them with the same seriousness? To me the initial SL component was just a screening / outreach process - finding them someone they wouldn't

Where does it treat them with the same seriousness? To me the initial SL component was just a screening / outreach process - finding them someone they wouldn't have otherwise found. He then had 11 face-to-face interviews (in two different countries) totalling 9.5 hours of face-to-face time.. How was this "bypassing face-to-face interaction"?