* The company decides to open a specific position, which it will fill no matter what.
* The position will pay the same amount no matter who fills it.
* There exists a binary condition called "qualified" which people metaphysically are or aren't.
* The job must not go to an unqualified person, but could go to any qualified applicant.
* Society may instruct you to use certain non-merit-based criteria to prefer some qualified applicants over others, but hiring managers and teams must not use their own subjective feelings or relationships to do so.
I can understand how a civil service or other massive bureaucracy full of principal-agent problems arrives at these rules, but they are obviously not the only valid way to assemble a high-performing team or the best one in all circumstances.