Wouldn’t asking real-world questions that the person will definitely run into during the job also gauge problem solving skills? Unless problem-solving isn’t part of the real job, in which case it’s not worth testing for.

If your point is that you do a mix of questions that are definitely relevant and some that are academic and might be relevant, why not just do 100% known-relevant questions? What’s the value add of asking questions that are less than 100% relevant?