Odd recruitment practices when hiring software developer

A few years ago, I came across an article that suggested a recruitment practice colloquially referred to as posing the FizzBuzz question, intended to weed out totally inappropriate applicants who clearly didn't have a clue about how to write code.  Personally, I had thought that the idea would cause a minor buzz (pun intended) for a while before it seemed to have finally run its course, and yet I came across a question at http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ that seems to suggest that the FizzBuzz question is still regarded by some as a useful recruitment tool.

I'll admit that I'm very surprised that people actually think that this can really tell them anything at all about an individual's abilities.  I get it that this seems to be a possible way to catch out the new developers who either don't have the talent, or that have crossed over from other specialties with even less talent, but the tone of the original article suggests that it's common to sift through and possibly even interview 100 individual candidates and still need to use this "test".  My question to anyone who has actually used a FizzBuzz-ism would be to ask if they actually know anything about recruiting technical staff at all, and programmers in particular?

Yes, I've actually had experience hiring staff for development roles.  It's an arduous process, and yet one I would never leave to the agencies as you can just as easily do a word-search as the agency can, and save yourself a hefty fee in the process.  The thing is, if you are screening candidates based on keywords, tricks and tests, you'll most likely lose the real diamonds underneath the rest of the chaff.