How so? They get paraded around as tokens of competence by VCs?

I've always found it amusing that FAANG pedigree is considered a plus for startup founders when the skill set is not only different but sometimes detrimental.

No, the VCs tell the founder/CEO to hire people who've done it before to help pay down the risks of unknown unknowns (which are real – this advice is overly simplistic but isn't conceptually wrong). This translates into them hiring from FAANGs if they take the advice semi-literally.