You are not an 3l337 h4x0r who p0wns puzzles for a living. You're a professional software developer who builds useful systems for people and organizations.
It sounds like you know the kind of culture you've enjoyed, and you know what the red flags are. Which makes sense. I think everyone gets pickier as they gain experience.
Exactly, I saw people building useful stuff for the internet by using if this then that and arrays without even hearing about 1337... its not about that.
No kidding, that time would be far better spent contributing to open source and building a profile there, in terms of interview performance and mental health. I do a couple interviews a week as an interviewer, and probably once a month we see a talented senior eng who has been out of the interview loop for a while and just explains that, but if you can point to your open source work I'll go read your code and judge that, it's a far better marker.
Even if you don't do well at the single LC style question in our interview loop, you can still pass and be hired, there are other things we ask that are specifically NOT LC type questions.
Find a startup to interview at, skip the 4 LeetCode questions in 4 hours interview.
You are not an 3l337 h4x0r who p0wns puzzles for a living. You're a professional software developer who builds useful systems for people and organizations.
It sounds like you know the kind of culture you've enjoyed, and you know what the red flags are. Which makes sense. I think everyone gets pickier as they gain experience.