I said yes, but only with the assumption that this is specifically for software engineering roles. You can land a high paying job in other roles without the leetcode grind. You may pay in other ways, in terms of the nature of the work or other requirements. Yes, FANGS definitely do hire MBAs from a top programs, PhD scientists to work in non-SE analytical roles, and so forth, and they may get to skip the technical interview. But I have been astonished by the credentials of people currently working at google, we're talking people with PhDs in computer science who were hired as analysts or scientists, who still had to run the leetcode gauntlet to switch over to an SE role - and some of them failed the interviews.