Every company I’ve worked for in the past several jobs has had me interviewing candidates directly. I’m part of the decision making on whether the candidate is hired, or which candidate from a panel is hired.
That doesn't mean you (or other employee interviewers) are seeing all the candidates. There are almost certainly a lot that are getting screened out before they reach that stage.
This is about whether positions are being created without ever planning to fill them.
I think it’s perfectly fine to screen out candidates and not interview them. And while ideally they’d still get a response, I can see how volume can make it hard to receive a handcrafted personal response.
But again, this is about companies creating positions strictly to improve the morale of the employees still around.
Right. And what I mean is that, if your hiring department is posting job "openings" which they don't intend to fill, they probably aren't allowing any of the applicants to advance to an interview.