To have someone actively look for a job for you is indeed not scalable, at least not affordably. What about having people that know you, personal and professionaly tell you about jobs you might like? Do you think they would do a better job than the average recruiter?
That's a nasty list by the way. The thing is most of those issues can be avoided with just a little bit of effort and care...
I'm not expecting to have someone doing everything for me handholding, but I still haven't found a recruiter that hasn't lied to me or stopped sending emails or skipping appointments or is not completely clueless technically about the job position or me, and I'm pretty sure this is all across the board, I'm nobody special.
Like you said, with a bit of effort it will be great. The issue imho is that recruiters have no barriers of entry, so it's like realtors or financial advisors, a few good people in a sea of weasels, unfortunately while I found good people in those professions, not in the recruiting area.
