> Even if you don't actively make an effort to network, you have a network of people who know you're good enough to outright hire without the whole rigmarole.
Not sure why you think this is the case. It is really easy to end up with a worthless network (I managed), and many larger companies insist on forcing every applicant through the HR hiring funnel for compliance reasons.
It's been my whole career. Yeah, I've had to go in and do the grip'n'grin interview and talk to people for a couple hours to make sure I'm not a martian or something. But every job has always come about because someone at the company either knew I was competent (from working with me in the past) or asked someone I knew who told them I was.
I've never had a job that involved whiteboarding or any sort of coding test.
Not sure why you think this is the case. It is really easy to end up with a worthless network (I managed), and many larger companies insist on forcing every applicant through the HR hiring funnel for compliance reasons.