> In a couple of cases, those people replied to me, demonstrated some actions towards those goals, and I hired them later, when I had more available positions.

I've seen this being automated in enterprise recruiting systems as "Candidate Relationship Management" using terms like "silver medalist" to identify and re-engage folks who didn't quite make the cut for positions they interviewed for but may be good fits for other open positions or for future pre-vetted candidates.

I applaud you for making things more human!