I petition that it is considered as possible, and even a good practice, for (relatively) new domains, with too few well-known ways to compare the candidates' me

I petition that it is considered as possible, and even a good practice, for (relatively) new domains, with too few well-known ways to compare the candidates' merits (diplomas, course of studies, apparent achievements...). Software development is such a field. The elite positions are indeed heavily elitism-tainted, and 'merit' often means 'identical/similar diploma than the ones detained by the staff'.