Well when done this way with all the constraints you specified, then yes the homework interview works very well. Unfortunately, the vast majority of hiring managers do not come anywhere close to any of the points you mentioned.
Just last week, I was interviewing for an opportunity as a VP of Engineering for a post-early-stage startup. The CTO gave me a take home assignment involving building not one but three complete applications (to be delivered in a docker container so it could be easily run). When I told him that I didn't have the kind of time it would take to perform this, he told me all the other candidates for the same role had no issues with it.
I ended up withdrawing from the process.
If senior roles itself are being hired like this, then I can only imagine how much worse it would be for individual contributor engineering roles.
There's a trade-off for companies. This kind of hiring process will filter out 99% of low-quality candidates, while also filtering out <99% of quality candidates. So it increases their odds of a not selecting a poor choice.
This is great for companies who are willing to sacrifice getting the best candidate for assurance they won't get a bad one. This makes sense for a small startup, where a poor candidate hurts growth more than a great candidate helps it, but less so for a Google-class company where a single great candidate is like a billion dollar lottery ticket and the bad candidates cost almost nothing.
Senior roles should have more demanding technical interviews than junior roles. The company had a bullshit-preventing immune system. It's not a culture fit for you. Win-win.
When hiring for a senior role, you should also consider that the person, who is already in a similar role, would not have the time to spend on your humongous homework app. When literally the only free time I have for myself and my family is a few hours everyday and then the weekends, I am definitely not going to spend the majority of that on an interview, not would I expect my candidates to do so if I were the one doing the hiring.
So yes, I suppose in a way it was not a culture fit for me, and that was indeed why I ended up withdrawing. I would also urge anybody interviewing for any role to evaluate whether a company which requires you to spend a substantial portion of your personal time, before you're even an employee, has the kind of culture you're okay with.
Just last week, I was interviewing for an opportunity as a VP of Engineering for a post-early-stage startup. The CTO gave me a take home assignment involving building not one but three complete applications (to be delivered in a docker container so it could be easily run). When I told him that I didn't have the kind of time it would take to perform this, he told me all the other candidates for the same role had no issues with it.
I ended up withdrawing from the process.
If senior roles itself are being hired like this, then I can only imagine how much worse it would be for individual contributor engineering roles.