In jobs where downside risk is much worse than upside risk (i.e. doing it poorly can be catastrophic, but doing it exceptionally well doesn't get you much), the

In jobs where downside risk is much worse than upside risk (i.e. doing it poorly can be catastrophic, but doing it exceptionally well doesn't get you much), then it entirely makes sense to hire from trusted networks. If you're hiring for example an ombudsman for employee grievances, this person could cost your company billions of dollars if they fuck it up, but aren't going to make you any more profitable by succeeding. So the best move is to find the person with the lowest risk of fucking it up, not the person with the highest expected value.