Don't feel too bad. One counterpoint to this is that most companies I've worked at will require even highly recommended employees to go through the same interview process as everyone else, primarily for fairness and diversity reasons.

Getting a recommendation may "put you to the front of the line", and may allow you to skip a basic screening call, but honestly I think most well run organizations won't skip the interview process even if it's a well-known "superstar" - they would instead just change some of the interviews to let that superstar demonstrate their in-depth expertise in their niche.