If even a small number of people start doing this then it’s going to break all the hiring channels and we’ll only be able to hire referrals and friends.

my multinational employer thought that they could do that since they one of the biggest players in the industry so they figured they can force return to the office and they could just replace everyone who left as a result. fast forward a year and they've had to outsource hiring to bolster their own recruitment because the referrals they got were in such high demand that they had to compete with other major industry players to hire them and they had to double down on finding people through traditional means.

i know it's not like that in all industries; but that ones that stress or rely on experience are really hurting to find people like this because the social circles of ones with that experience are others with similar experience and those circles are tiny.

i've applied to this company several times in the past and got auto rejected; it wasn't until the attrition got so bad that they deigned to give me the time of day.