It's hilarious because companies use such scammable ways to define who is "top 0.1%"

Also there's a ton amazing engs out there who want and need work but the companies all only want that one "perfect" guy (or gal), as if such a thing exists

Exactly. It's so bleak that this industry throws integrity out the window in the name of productivity.

> Being a good developer and being a scammer are completely uncorrelated variables.

One could expect good developers to be less inclined to fraud as they may not “need” it as much.

That also made me thing of Berkson’s paradox: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkson%27s_paradox

If these were really independent traits they would look negatively correlated as we talk about people who are good OR scammers.