I agree with you.
I can understand the concept of “forced retirement”.
Supposed you are in your late 50s/early 60s. While age discrimination is illegal, it is easy to avoid hiring older workers.
For example, say a company recruits for a job, and there are 10 applicants who meet the qualifications. One or two are older, and the rest are much younger. It is easy to just remove the older workers from consideration.
The only areas in which age could be an advantage would be some senior level management positions, in which an employer might like someone with 20 or 30 years of increasingly responsible experience.
But otherwise, for mid level professional jobs, or random hired help type jobs, employers prefer younger workers.
Also, when you apply for a job, and you are not hired, you never really know the reason why you were not hired. You never really know the qualifications of the person they end up hiring, or have the ability to compare their resume to yours. You are never told the real reason you were not hired. I’m sure this is to avoid lawsuits.