The pushback is precisely because paying the high standards up front pulls up the ladder that made tech such an attractive option to people without traditional academic skills who managed to be computer whizzes.

Take home projects and personal portfolios are the options that are the best. Those are the ones where candidates are given the time to show their best work and don't require the debt of a college degree in a specific major (whose knowledge is probably largely irrelevant to your day-to-day coding).