That's ridiculous! Obviously not every software engineer knows algorithms and data structures, but if you do pass a leet code question you have at least some minimum of skill.
It's shocking how many interviews I've done where the candidate can barely code anything unfortunately, so it is absolutely worthwhile.
Having done many coding interviews I can assure you there is more to it than memorizing a problem and solution. I don't see how asking someone who is applying for a software engineer job to do a miniature software engineering task is controversial!
It's shocking how many interviews I've done where the candidate can barely code anything unfortunately, so it is absolutely worthwhile.