Go start a company. Hire people without doing any sort of coding interviews. Report back in a year.

The reality is that these are extremely desirable positions with a staggering number of applicants who _do not know how to code_. Not as in “I can’t solve a dynamic programming problem without studying up on it”, but as in literally don’t know what a for loop is.

The process is far from perfect and the frustration is understandable, but it works well enough as a filter from these companies’ point of view.

I imagine technical screening is necessary, but in-person coding assessments are nonsensical. It's not like programming is a spectator sport, so why are we tested on it live? I suppose the process is self-selecting, because I personally have given up responding to SV recruiters or interviewing with those companies.

Well it started off with Microsoft in the 90's, then Google in 2000's and then it just became common for every company in SV to conduct these programming interviews.

I don't see a "good reason" in your comment.