As a candidate, I'm willing to put up with sometimes shoddy interview outcomes (e.g., ghosting) if my funnel is far greater and consequently leads to a more competitive offer, which is the end goal. A narrower funnel, that pre-selects for higher expectations of how companies engage in the process, may end up falling short of what I'm optimizing for.
Exactly, I don't understand all this moaning. You're only doing this every some years, you might as well try to optimize it rather than be picky, because it can make a big difference both career and compensation wise.
Idiotic HR does not correlate in any way with a worse or better company, at least in my experience.