It is hard to disrupt these practices. These kinds of interviews, while not the best gauge of talent, do have some correlation with a candidate's ability. The fact that this process scales well and that all the big companies that everyone wants to work at do this makes it such that the only way to disrupt the practice is if another large company gains such a competitive advantage as to overtake the big corps like Google/Amazon/Apple/Microsoft.
A lot of companies do things differently. They're just usually smaller companies.
I don't think his comment was the interview practice itself (though that needs an overhaul too), but rather the pacing and relation the company maintains through the recruiter with the candidate. Neither internal nor external recruiters seem to share the same priorities as the hiring managers nor the candidates, and I know a couple of companies (yes, predominantly SV ones) who have left such a bad taste in my mouth just from my interaction with their recruiters that even though I've never interviewed with them I don't ever want to work for them. That is probably unfair, but if I'm of so little value as a potential hire as to respect the basics of human decency, I don't really want to see what happens when I'm actually dependent on them for my salary.
What's interesting, too, is that the only time I've -not- encountered -any- of these issues (with a large SV company no less) was when I had an offer in hand from somewhere else. Being able to say "Sure, I'll interview with you, but you need to be pretty quick about it because I have an offer in hand that is pretty attractive" got me through from initial phone screen, to onsite interview, to verbal offer, without me having to drive the process at all, in less than a week.
A lot of companies do things differently. They're just usually smaller companies.