Wasting time on training a skill they are not realistically going to benefit from. People can only spend their time once so learning other skills will suffer.
If the job requires algorithm wizardry, I see the benefits of LeetCode-style interviews but many jobs are not like that.
Company use leetcode style because is not useless. it make the interview process more streamlined, scalable and predictable.
For the me interviewee, it also make the interview process more streamlined, scalable and predictable. I practice once and I can use it for many other company, thus save my time.
There is no point in streamlining or scaling a process that leads to wrong outcomes.
At the margin, companies will lose out on qualified candidates that have better things to do with their time than practice algorithms and hire unqualified candidates that got lucky with their Leetcode practice.
I think it's instructive to consider who the employer is too. Leetcode works well for Google. They pay top notch compensation and have a long line of people who want to work there. They can put horrible hoops up and enough people would still want to jump through them.
Most companies have cargo-culted the programming interview, even when they don't have the same amount of demand from candidates.
