Most of the consulting positions I’m aware of also hire a far lower talent caliber than FAANG, so they need bodies, not top talent.
I have worked at a company who had a casual, experienced-based, conversational interview. The engineering there was atrocious, and I left as soon as I could.
If you can talk your way into a position, that says a lot about the level of talent there. Top talent wants to work at a place that has a transparent and merit based performance bar, and you can’t smooth-talk your way into a job.
If you’re referring to body shop consulting agencies this may be true, but IME as an IC consultant in DS/ML, my rates are well above Staff+ at FAANG, and nobody has ever tried to leetcode interview me. Yes, I have to do a lot of smooth talking, but performance is extremely transparent: if I don’t deliver, I don’t get paid. Honestly I doubt I could pass a leetcode style interview, and I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore.