If everyone else believes that second-round hires are also second-rate hires, you can't necessarily break the standard alone. First-round hires will see you as a bad company and pass, and business partners will doubt your work and look to your competitors.

Not all systemic inefficiencies are available to be fixed by individual companies; if the rest of society will punish you too badly for deviating then the inefficient solution is the "smart" one.

(Of course, there might be an opportunity to staff an American tech startup or something that doesn't need those social connections.)