>People who are desperate or suck will gladly take the money.

I don't see that as a universal truth at all. Many decent people are out of work for various reasons (start-up just gone under, contract ended and haven't found the next one yet, just back in the market after illness or similar, new to the area, or like the post that started this discussion: they just don't interview well despite their technical skills+experience) and some of them are desperate for new work. Not everyone, even amongst the best people, are sat on enough of a nest egg that they can turn work down willy-nilly.

People who are busy won't be applying in the first place, or will take the technical interview option (which is presumably less difficult to schedule the time for) if offered instead.

> You also need to pay market rate if you hope to hire market rate talent.

For the job yes, of course. For the interview, which this short contract is taking the place of? I don't think so. You can't be too cheap of course, as that will make people doubt the salary range being quoted for the real job/contract.

Of course if a company were to try use this as a way to get quick short-term resource in cheaply, with little or no intention to take people on for longer contracts, their reputation for it would circulate PDQ and people would stop applying at all (unless really desperate).