And the irony is -- they suddenly think you're "hot" because you're getting competing offers (or competing invites to do 7 or 8 rounds of culture fit interviews and/or LC grinding, in any case). Which is another way for them to say: "Actually we really don't know how to evaluate these candidates, so instead we rely on random externalities, like the number of other interviews they're having this particular week."

Agreed. I also find it problematic that you have no control over the schedule of when the interviews start, when offers are made, how long companies might wait. E.g. if you have offers and you're still interviewing do you tell those companies to wait? If so - might they consider it a lack of interest? Possibly too much competition to waste further time on you with? Do you risk making them wait too long and rescinding an offer? idk... i wish there was a guide on how to handle this crap based on actual research. I've read from a recruiter not to indicate you have other offers at all because they're likely just to say to take them and not to proceed further. There are so many aspects of hiring that seem unknown.

You do have control, actually -- you can always say things like "Sorry, but the number of weeks / rounds does not seem to be in line with the TC being offered", knowing that this carries a moderate-to-high risk of rejection. Or if that is too blunt for your style -- you can always politiely excessive rounds of LC, interviews that start before 9 a.m. in your time zone, or (one of favorites) interviews with people who expect you to have your camera on while they have theirs off.

Or any of the other tokens of gratuitous unpleasantness, carelessness and plain one-sided-ness that these companies routinely rub in our faces, as if we're desperate to work for them.

It just depends how much FY money you're sitting on at the moment. Like anything else in this industry.

At this point they spent money on ads, have filtered most candidates and spent countless hours/money interviewing you. You not accepting is a setback where they might have to redo the process costing even more. A delay is acceptable to most, even a slight salary increase request.