But one thing I never did was put up arbitrary barriers.  Yet, "top companies" (sorry bro, your pre-seed startup might be a great idea, but it's not a top anything yet) want a show of meaningless effort as a proof of value. And job seekers will comply because we need employment to access capital, or more specifically, food, shelter, health care and social mobility. It's pretty bleak.

It's very simple. The author might want to work for a big company because of money, reputation, office politics, big scale of projects, nice office, good networking and stability. Those companies have a ton of people applying for them for the same reason. Of course they can afford and need to put up barriers. Author think they are arbitrary but would not be able to create better ones to replace them, everyone is in the same boat.

And then the Author weirdly dismisses startups that are looking for talents. Startups that have no reputation, no stability, focused projects, small teams and less money. But they have much less "arbitrary" barriers. Here you go, you have your solution right there in front of you, in your text. Working at a startup or any small company will give you "food, shelter, health care and social mobility". But that's not what you really want. You don't really know why your interested in that big company instead of smaller ones. That question wasn't arbitrary after all.

You can't have a cake and eat it too.