> Your criteria heavily biases towards very performative and obvious signs of hard work in a commercial setting, completely oblivious to hard work and character outside of it.

Hiring people based on knowing what should be built, how to build and especially knowing how to make the business money is not performative. I'd rather optimizing the hiring process for builders instead of rest-and-vest day-care slackers or leetcode grinders just for passing the interview.

There is nothing more performative than anyone doing these puzzles and answering quiz trivia, which doesn't make you or anyone money and it is only a waste of everyone's time.