Are you familiar with the concept of a recruitment funnel? It is not financially worth it to personally talk with every single person that applies to a company.
I just finished a successful job search, and only had 1 company (of maybe 50 applications) try this.
Something must be wrong with this logic because it clearly is financially worth it to have a job.
Every company does not do this. I always refuse tasks like this unless I've talked to a human before hand, as unless the company has invested a little effort, then I won't invest any effort.
Yes, for the company.
And if the cost to do that initial screen is almost zero, it also means that you may not even have a job opening and are just testing the waters.
No matter how you slice it, it's a bad look.