Do high schoolers work anymore? That’s where we learned to develop a work ethic. And if you didn’t have a job in high school, you were a loser.
Sadly you are partly right.
HR is who writes the requirements, selects who will get through to be interviewed and they rarely have any idea what the actual requirements of the job are.
The department managers usually have little or no say as to who they will be interviewing.
Once had a case where they had a temp that had been in the job for a few months and was doing great. The boss told her to apply for the job. Her CV never hit his desk so he assumed that she didn't want the job. So he went with another candidate. On her last day he told her that he was sorry to see her go and she asked, "then why didn't you at least interview me?"
HR had decided that she "was not a good fit" because she did not have a degree and had put her application in file 13. She had been doing the job just fine without one. But they knew better.