if properly trained, interviewers ask questions that build without throwing the kitchen sink at you.

whiteboard interviews (when done holistically) assess for signal, not binary correctness

- do you have a solid framework to build a solution?

- are you considering multiple approaches / data structures / complexities

- referencing similar problems, vocabulary, situations to illustrate breadth of knowledge

sure, the stress component isn't ideal, but there are multiple relevant capabilities being assessed in a very short amount of time...

in other words it's a much better test of tacit knowledge than alternatives