The dinging people for not-clever-enough solutions feels like hazing. It's less about competence than about ego. The most important thing in an interview is to make sure the person's level of skill is at least as big as their conception of their skill.
The most important thing in an interview is to make sure the person's level of skill is enough to be your coworker. Their conception of their skill doesn't matter. Programmers who know they're bad programmers are still bad programmers.
Sure but you at least have a chance at helping them out and moving them up. To some extent is culture and happenstance. Sometimes you get off on the wrong foot and you're on each other's nerves. But attitude and work ethic are like multipliers that can go negative.
