> ... when I read the crazy whiteboard interviewing, the pains people go through to get money here on HN, I would say it is pretty important.
Networking won't help you get hired at a top tech company if you cannot perform well on "whiteboard interviews". It generally doesn't matter that you have an internal referral. If you don't do well on the whiteboard, it's a no-hire regardless of network. Even famous people get turned away for failing on the whiteboard. e.g. the creator of Homebrew[0] when he interviewed @ Google[1].
[0] https://brew.sh/