Sure, that's true. I haven't taken one in over 25 years. I don't remember enough of the fine details off the top of my head to solve these well. But I can count on one hand the number of times it's held me back in real life.

Instead in my day to day I'm able to recognize when a problem needs something beyond the braindead solution and a sense of roughly where the solution lies, and am able to then go do a bit of research on the topic.

Solving leetcode hard style problems in ~45 mins off the top of one's head is just not a problem many developers face in their jobs. I agree that these tests demonstrate some information, but the ability for that person to be a good developer is not among that signal.

I generally agree, but in the case of algorithms courses you generally know what you're expected to know for tests, and for course work you have ample access to course materials.

Getting a random question from an infinite pool and completing it with fewer resources under a short time crunch is a different game.

The low-level/assembly course I took had tests that felt like puzzles, and those tests were a ton of fun to take. Can't say I've had the same feeling for leetcode puzzles.