I've worked in this field since the average HN commentator was in diapers. It's my experience that the common wisdom about the uselessness of recruiters is, if

I've worked in this field since the average HN commentator was in diapers. It's my experience that the common wisdom about the uselessness of recruiters is, if anything, an understatement. They don't read, they don't understand anything about what they're selling, they often lie, and they don't care. There may be a few exceptions, but if so, they are so few and far between that it's not worth trying to sort through the rest.