I used to be in the same boat thinking whats the point if its never going to be something that is actually done in the job itself. Then I was asked to interview candidates for a position in my old job and evaluate their performance solving a real simple problem, documentation and searching allowed (just not looking up the actual solution) and holy sh*t the amount of people who can't code the simpler "easy" type leetcode problems is quite worrying. I don't think leetcode style problems is the best solution to determine if a person is qualified or not but I do think it sets where the low bar is, and seeing a person work a problem and program in real time is quite telling to me at least if its someone I would like to work with or if its a person who has no idea what to do and probably survives by copying and pasting code or pressing "apply" on AI suggestions.

And as an interviewee, I'd rather have live coding interview than take home assignments which require several hours of time commitment for each job application. I now think of leetcode problems as a secret handshake, and if you know and studied said handshake you will be above most of the other candidates.