These and similar situations surprised me for a while, but not anymore, because they've become too common:
AWS hiring process is COMPLETELY BROKEN!
Many incompetent managers, nepotism and favoritism ..
I know my friend who had average knowledge of the domain .. he was hired at L6.
Not sure how he passed technical competency and raised the bar LOL
He struggled so much and use to get my help for understanding some of his projects. eventually, he was so stressed. he has take an unpaid leave for a month and finally QUIT within seven months! he took a 30% TC cut and joined another company.
We are now surprised when someone competent comes, right?