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This. Very few people would welcome someone more competent than themselves, let alone open the door for them.

A lesser coworker who does not rock the boat and pulls some amount of work (specially the rote kind of it) is seen as the best option.

Then the solution is to find higher performing teams with higher expectations. If one still bombs interviews after that, then it's likely the hypothesis is incorrect.

An incompetent hire is far more of a potential threat than a competent one.

There's quite a gap between competent and threat, I think...