It's a branding strategy. The psychology of Veblen goods is fascinating. See example below.

"Things changed in the 1960s, with McKinsey leading the way. In 1965 and 1966, the firm placed help-wanted ads in The New York Times and Time magazine, with the goal of generating applications that it could then reject, to establish its own eliteness."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/how-mckins...