In these kind of competitions (e.g. Kaggle), the algos never really get used because they are too complex/optimized to implement into production (i.e. 3 layers

In these kind of competitions (e.g. Kaggle), the algos never really get used because they are too complex/optimized to implement into production (i.e. 3 layers of 10 ensembled XGB + 1000 highly engineered features + etc, etc). Mainly they are used for recruiting, new ideas (simpler versions get implemented), and proof of concept (if we did this really really well, what would it look like, should we spend 2 engineering years on it?)