No, its not the interviews. Its the proliferation of the idea that Google (and co) as the "final boss" interviews/companies and once you get in its just resting

No, its not the interviews. Its the proliferation of the idea that Google (and co) as the "final boss" interviews/companies and once you get in its just resting and vesting. Back in the day these companies were spots for hackers and innovators, now they are mostly just the final destination for clout or TC chasers. That is what stifles innovation, not a few innocious coding questions. IMO any interview type would be gameable. Also at Googles scale this is the most realistic pipeline to hire people, and having it go through a committee ensures that candidates are deterministically and fairly assessed. Also I recommend you try these "high school problems" you seem to be talking down on. I for one greatly respect people who can solve those types of problems, regardless of their age. These are not trivial problems, mind you. They require a lot of mathematical and logical intuition that 99% of people (and I'd wager the majority of SWEs) don't have.