I've been a hiring manager for 3 years and have been interviewing candidates for 7. In all that time, I have _never_ had a situation where two candidates were exactly equally qualified. There has always been factors that we can use to choose one over the other. the last time I had to make a recommendation on a candidate decision, both would have been appropriate for the job. I recommended we contact the one we didn't hire for our next opening, and my hire recommendation was because candidate A had marginally more experience than B in an area that our team was weaker on.

If you are DEI conscious company you hire both

I just choose the sexier candidate. Better for morale.