I'm somewhat concerned that "smartest" is being conflated with "best at solving LeetCode problems and other time-limited interview exams". The American educational system doesn't focus on these types of Olympiad-style exercises.

I worry the pipeline is being tailored to pick up people with Olympiad-heavy educations at the expense of recruiting our local talent and creativity. And the more people are recruited from one such pipeline, the more biased its interview process becomes towards that style. (Not to say there's no overlap.)

Yeah exactly, the people coming through these pipelines aren't the next batches of Moore's or Noyce's.