So you are saying that companies are hiring people that are willing to prove that they can put "a lot of work" into preparing for interviews that have no relevance to the actual work? I can see that as a valid point, as a way to filter lazy individuals. (In the same way that a college degree is more a way to prove that you can sustain X years of learning things without dropping out).
But it will also filter out everyone that is opinionated enough to not do that stupid preparation work, and you will end up with sheep coders that will always follow the rules.
Looking at Google, Facebook etc, this might already be the case. I will even go so far to say that they prefer those type of obedient coders than the ones that ask too many questions and get too creative.
No relevance would be like when I took the GRE for grad school. I studied things that had zero relevance to the CS program I ended up attending.
Reviewing algorithms for interview prep at least has some relevance to programming. While a candidate may not use that exact algorithm in their day to day job, they are creating ad hoc algorithms all day long. With that said, I don't think time pressure, white boarding algorithms is a very good job performance predictor.
But it will also filter out everyone that is opinionated enough to not do that stupid preparation work, and you will end up with sheep coders that will always follow the rules. Looking at Google, Facebook etc, this might already be the case. I will even go so far to say that they prefer those type of obedient coders than the ones that ask too many questions and get too creative.