I agree with most of these points, but my team lead brought up an excellent point while we were interviewing someone - my team lead had the candidate do a stupid easy algorithm question just to see whether the candidate was the real deal, and explained to the candidate is that anyone could list a Github profile as part of their resume.
The candidate was understanding, and did it - he didn't have to have exact syntax, I was happy enough seeing psuedocode since I already took a peek at the Github profile that was a part of his resume.
It only wasted a few minutes of his time whiteboard coding, and it wasn't intense, so it gave him a nice easy way for him to explain his thought process. I asked relevant questions to the code that he wrote, and it lead to a good discussion on some things.
I felt that we were mutually happy with the experience, as he subsequently accepted our job offer.
On the whole though, asking stupid questions is a waste of both side's time.
I think anyone can list a Github profile as part of their resume, absolutely. That's why I said you should ask questions about the contents of that Github profile. Explain why you built X and how Y works and if you could do Z differently, what would change? What were the biggest problems with this project and what did you think would be hard about that project but turned out to be easy? And so on.
IMHO, there's no need for whiteboard coding.
Having said that, if you are going to ask me to do some whiteboard coding, I would greatly prefer something like you described -- a high level response that tests my thought processes. You can see my code on Github, I shouldn't have to write some on a board. But I'll be happy to explain thought processes while solving a problem.
I can see both POVs, and they definitely have merit. In my own interview for my current job, I was very happy to not have to code anything - the team leads who interviewed me already found it obvious that I was extremely smart & knowledgeable despite having less than a year of experience.
Not that I would have minded coding on the fly or answering stupid brainteasers - I grew up figuring those things out. Those leave me with negative impressions of the company though, and may lead me to demand a higher salary to accept a position.
The candidate was understanding, and did it - he didn't have to have exact syntax, I was happy enough seeing psuedocode since I already took a peek at the Github profile that was a part of his resume.
It only wasted a few minutes of his time whiteboard coding, and it wasn't intense, so it gave him a nice easy way for him to explain his thought process. I asked relevant questions to the code that he wrote, and it lead to a good discussion on some things.
I felt that we were mutually happy with the experience, as he subsequently accepted our job offer.
On the whole though, asking stupid questions is a waste of both side's time.