I would agree with the OP that on average open source contributions seems to have very low impact on the chances of getting hired somewhere, and about potential

I would agree with the OP that on average open source contributions seems to have very low impact on the chances of getting hired somewhere, and about potential roles. I also submitted patches to various projects, including some quite impactful ones that the associated companies used and that e.g. increased performance significantly. Also have written a library that one of the companies (in the extended FANG circle) needed but didn't achieve it to write on their own for a lot more time. I have never been asked about any of those things in a typical interview loop. I think this is due to a mixture of interviewers not knowing the technologies themselves (there are actually a very low amount of developers who know their foundational technologies in detail) and interview loops mostly standardized on CS basics (extended FizzBuzz). If the main goal is to land a good job I wouldn't recommend people to try to get recognition with open source projects. Doing Leetcode exercises, having a good network and doing some job-hopping from time to time might help a lot more. However I still think contributing to OSS projects can be awesome, and can provide a very satisfying feel to oneself.