sounds great except now that person forwarded the resume, and you still have to do the exact rounds that you would have done when cold calling unless you're applying to a small shop
But HR will come to the referrer when that candidate bombs their homework and the referrer, if they can vouch for you, gets a chance to defend your honor. "Oh, that makes sense. Joan was terrible at that kind of thing but she built this amazing thing that did this and that and that…"
you can usually skip a round or 2, and also get a bit of leniency