"Never attribute to malice what is sufficiently explained by incompetence". Nepotism is not necessary.
In one company I worked for, the interviews were done by the self proclaimed CTO (which was one of the founders of the company) which was actually a dentist with no tech knowledge whatsoever. Of course in this case the interviews were just generic chats, with no technical question.
I once was offered a job for director of engineering of a big financial firm in the UK based on a couple chats over the phone with the CEO and some tech guy (don't remember the title). With the CEO, I just chatted a bit in general about my past and my future, with the tech guy, mostly explained my past, talked maybe 5 minutes about tech (design patterns or something) and that was it.
No code, no hard technical questions on what to use what or when, nothing. I know a lot of people that didn't have the skills for that job but their attitude and bullshitting techniques would probably have gotten them the job. And this was a very successful company handling millions in revenues and working with the major banks.
In one company I worked for, the interviews were done by the self proclaimed CTO (which was one of the founders of the company) which was actually a dentist with no tech knowledge whatsoever. Of course in this case the interviews were just generic chats, with no technical question.