The former only in case of the latter. I.e., if someone isn't willing to grind leetcode, their intelligence is irrelevant. If someone is willing to grind leet

The former only in case of the latter. I.e., if someone isn't willing to grind leetcode, their intelligence is irrelevant. If someone is willing to grind leetcode, then yes, their intelligence is a secondary variable. Regardless, such styled interviews are intended to minimize the number of false positives (since the companies have so many applicants it's safer to err on the side of "no"; there are more in the pipeline), which means they will also generate a tremendously high number of false negatives.