Most of the consulting positions I’m aware of also hire a far lower talent caliber than FAANG, so they need bodies, not top talent.

I have worked at a company who had a casual, experienced-based, conversational interview. The engineering there was atrocious, and I left as soon as I could.

If you can talk your way into a position, that says a lot about the level of talent there. Top talent wants to work at a place that has a transparent and merit based performance bar, and you can’t smooth-talk your way into a job.