There are certainly people like that, but there are also exceptionally smart people that just absolutely suck at selling themselves, and you might unknowingly decided the same way in case of both.
It’s very hard to fairly evaluate someone. E.g. I had interviews where I 100% know more than one of my interviewers on the specific topic (not bragging, my knowledge is ain’t a high bar), and that gap in this unusual direction made the process very awkward and strange.
I have only gotten jobs because of people I have worked with before. I have written all kinds of software for all kinds of systems and products but I just don't come across as smart on a first meeting. And to be fair I almost invariably like to chew on a knotty problem for a few days turning it over in my head till I get a feel for it, unless I have already solved a very similar problem; but I only want to solve novel problems. Old problems in software should be solvable easily. The current interviewing process would not hire me unless I had already worked with the deciders before.
> Old problems in software should be solvable easily
I keep telling people who interview me that this is what APIs, modules, and frameworks are for. They capture good solutions to problems and allow us to move faster and build better software. If they are rude to me I tell them that I thought they were an e-commerce business and should not be solving basic problems in Computer Science.
It’s very hard to fairly evaluate someone. E.g. I had interviews where I 100% know more than one of my interviewers on the specific topic (not bragging, my knowledge is ain’t a high bar), and that gap in this unusual direction made the process very awkward and strange.