I'm not sure what I said contradicts what you're saying. I've been involved with hiring over 100 people in Boston, San Francisco and NYC. Everyone does not really know everyone but that's a different story. Contract to hire is very popular in the part of the Midwest where I'm originally from because of no particular reason other than the hiring firm can and the person being hired doesn't have many options. At one place I worked in Boston everyone was theoretically "contract to hire" but it was atypical as the rate paid was so high that nobody ever took the full time job.