The part that is weird for me is that you are aggravated from a candidate perspective, I am aggravated from a hiring perspective, but nothing will change.

I think it became standard because it scales, at least in some sense. Once big companies started doing it (because of scaling issues) small companies started doing it (because of "hey, it works for Google" issues). If I was in a small company, I am sure I would have a little more freedom in how I hire, but I am not.

I think I am actually okay with the white-board puzzle quizzes if you have nothing else to go on. For instance, a college graduate who only has course projects. However, we use them for everyone.

Maybe once you get to X years of experience (maybe 10?) the white-board interviews become easy, you're used to them.