I agree. Good people never had a problem getting a job. I got my first summer job writing code when I was in high school. My friend wrote commercial video games when in high school. Through history, if you were enthusiastic about writing software, and you were good at it, finding work was never a problem. It's always been finding those people that has been the problem.
I would almost argue the opposite, that this process opens doors for people who are not good software developers to get good software jobs. Since you can relatively easily prep for a software interview but no amount of prepping makes you a really good developer. Whatever the coding interview process measures, it's not how good of a software engineer/developer you are.
yeah, and that underdog now can no longer get a job on hard work and merit, because that is not what leetcode interviews reward.
it also does not take into account any previous work done or any personal projects.
The underdog could get computer jobs before the current gatekeeping -- on enthusiasm, hard work, merit, and will.
The gatekeeping started by favoring the affluent (suddenly, going into dotcoms made more sense than that Wall Street job), and now other people have to invest in playing catchup on bro rituals.