I've had a very similar experience to this commenter. I wouldn't say that I reject all technical interviews and take home tests, but I certainly reject a lot of them and find that I have little trouble finding really high quality companies that will speak with me. As you say, a lot of it comes through broad and deep networking. I know people, I have a proven track record in business and technology, and people are comfortable working with me.

An ideal interview is one where I get to learn as much about who I will be working with and what I will be doing as they will be learning about me. Generally these turn into more discussion based interviews where we talk about the issues the company is having and how I might be able to best solve them. They still get a good idea about how I think and work by discussing the problem back and forth. I also get to see how they think and work.

Frankly, I white board problems very well. But when companies ask me to do so in an interview I want to see them do it as well. I want to see their ability to code as much as they want to see mine. Same goes for a take home test. If we are going to work together and you have to see code of mine, I very much want to see yours to make sure it is up to my standards.