Software should have some universal competency baseline, like a license. If AI resume spamming is that straw that breaks the camel’s back then so be it.

The best defense against AI would be a license number that identifies a person uniquely, provides their relevant job history from a database, proves some minimal common competency baseline, and confirms conformance to some ethical norm against known liabilities.

Was there anything distinctive about the position or the process for the one that you did land?

All of you are being fed nonsense. During my 10 years of being a salaried employee I interviewed for only the first one.

All of the rest including Faang companies I went in without any interviews by knowing people and pulling strings. You shouldn't have to "apply" for anything.