I don't think luck has anything to do with it. If some people find this process too burdensome, that's their right. But plenty of skilled engineers that I've

I don't think luck has anything to do with it. If some people find this process too burdensome, that's their right. But plenty of skilled engineers that I've worked with don't see it as being jerked around. At the very least, I find it less burdensome that turning coding into some sort of live-performance (which an in-person coding test inevitably is). Personally, I don't judge an hiring process primarily by how convenient it is for me. I judge it by how likely it is to be a good filter. If the company I'm applying to has a hiring process that is effective at selecting good candidates (along a number of different dimensions) then I'm more likely to enjoy working with the people there. From this perspective, homework assignments are a good filter, and so companies that use that approach seem like better places to apply.