Maybe the ability to get along with people is more important than some people are willing to admit?

I’ve met plenty of “smart people” who couldn’t get things done to save their lives partially because they couldn’t communicate well or play well with others.

Google don't want knowledge of algorithms, Google want fluency in creating algorithms. As a lecturer you likely missed a lot of gems since college testing doesn't test peoples ability to create algorithms and instead mostly test their ability to apply known algorithms. A lot of people who are great at applying known algorithms actually suck at algorithms in practice.