The company documents it and files an application. It’s pretty formula and a bit random. I’ve written recommendation letters for colleges to get these. My impression was the person evaluating it knows a bit about the field, they are no where near as informed as we were. AIUI, the pay was a bigger factor.

Spot on. USCIS adjudicators decide if an application has merit. While they are supposed to be financially self sufficient and good at the adjudication process, there is A. pressure from current administration resulting in rejection of application with merit, and B. pressure from the applicant pool to game even O1 or EB2 processes, just like H1B.

The government/USCIS could invest in the adjudication process to make it more robust. But they choose to leverage it for political gains instead. It helps nobody, not US, not US workers and not non-US workers who actually have merit and rather not cheat.