Google has at least 50K employees, spread all over the world. I guess it is quite possible to gather and recruit 50K employees who are much better developers than most others outside but I would not (rather cannot) call each one of them elite of the elite !

Look, a great deal of valuable software has been created by Google and other FAANGs. But I reckon most of that value has actually been created by the first or the best 5000 or maybe 10K employees at most. Most of the others in Google are enjoying the fruits of their genius, and they don't really have to perform any greater miracle than moving protocol buffers around. Still, no doubt that they are highly competent software developers and passed tough interviews. Not to imply that Google interviews can even distinguish between a genuinely talented programmer from a diligently-practicing-over-a-year leetcoder.

I mean, they definitely do. They also deploy an army of muppets! (6-yr ex-muppet here)