What you've just described sounds like the exact opposite of a rigorous, objective, work sample based hiring approach. Crappy companies have crappy hiring processes. It sucks to deal with that.
When we started doing work sample hiring, we put a process in place to handle many applicants, make sure we were responsive, and work people through the funnel as efficiently as we could. I don't think it's possible to take advantage of it any other way.
We got complimented several times on how reasonable the process was (by people we turned down!). This both made me feel good, and caused me existential "the world is broken" sadness. It's not a high bar to be decent to people.
No, it's not a high bar to be decent to people, yet many companies (and people) still aren't. The problem then is that prospective employees have no way of knowing that a company is decent versus another company that is not. Will I do another work sample for another company? I'm thinking likely not, but I haven't ruled out the possibility. Note though, that the company must offer something of great value for me to even consider it. In my case, that's remote work. I would never consider it for a non-remote company. Period.
Still, a company could have a great, responsive process in place. But my experience, and that of others, is that it's not worth my time and effort to do work for free. Let's be clear: this is what is being asked of the candidates. It therefore starts to undermine any company using such a process even though I don't think it's an inherently bad process.
Just ask "what is your process and criteria for hiring?" It's a fair question, a company should have a good answer. A thoughtful process is a good sign.
When we started doing work sample hiring, we put a process in place to handle many applicants, make sure we were responsive, and work people through the funnel as efficiently as we could. I don't think it's possible to take advantage of it any other way.
We got complimented several times on how reasonable the process was (by people we turned down!). This both made me feel good, and caused me existential "the world is broken" sadness. It's not a high bar to be decent to people.