The latter you describe, I agree is more accurate to reality. I do think the challenge is slightly exaggerated in my experience. There were keywords and the actually to string search and the filters were useful. On the flip side even at small ish (under 500) company we sometimes got 100 resumes to review and most of them were often just straight up bad.
I'm just pedantic and I think lemmy users have a habit of exaggerating to the point where I personally am thinking what reality are you living in?