In my experience interviewing people for small companies, I learn towards problems that aren't particularly hard but that demonstrate basic engineering fundamentals. I do value questions that give some insight into the interviewee's thought processes, but it's not necessary to give them a leetcode style question to get there. Startups that try to emulate Google hiring process are pretty clearly shooting themselves in the foot. Thoughtlessly copying successful companies is one of the banes of our industry.
Some companies are solving problems which might demand a higher level of algorithmic rigor in the interview, but it's always worked out for me on the hiring side to consciously avoid Google style questions. I don't think I've given the thumbs up to any truly 'bad hires' for many years, and I've given the thumbs up to many.
I interviewed at some startups from the HackerNews "Who's Hiring?" threads, and I had positive experiences with them. There wasn't much Leetcode BS, it was mostly talking with human beings. (Unfortunately, it turned out I was overqualified and overconfident for the jobs I applied to.. I didn't know that was even a possibility, haha.)
